LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
Chap TUShelf • 

PRESENTED BY 




SERMONS 



ILLUSTRATING 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD, 



AND OTHER 



FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES 



THE NEW-JERUSALEM CHURCH. 



BY RICHARD £E CHARMS, 

AN ORDAINING MINISTER OF THAT CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

BROWN, BICKING & GUILBERT, PRINTERS, 56 NORTH THIRD ST. 

1840. 



4-4> 



:E>X%1£ 









22147 



HORATIO UNfi 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The writer of these sermons cannot give them publi- 
city without disclaiming, on the very threshold, all credit 
for any truths which they may contain. All that belongs 
to him is some peculiarity in the presentation and illustra- 
tion of the doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg? 
who, he believes, was peculiarly qualified, and personally 
commanded by the Lord, to teach those doctrines to his 
church. He is even willing to think that what he calls 
his illustrations, may in fact be nothing more than tem- 
pering mediums of a too bright light. He hopes, however, 
that the spiritual objects seen through them will not be 
found to be distorted. If the light has been merely dimmed 
by the medium in which it is refracted, it is perhaps 
well ; for our weak eyes, in taking altitudes, need to be 
defended from the sun's effulgence by coloured mediums. 
In short, these sermons are designed to be simply an index 
to the writings of Swedenborg, which contain "truths 
continuous from the Lord :" and the author hopes that the 
reader will go from the index to the bourn at which it 
points. In the works of that enlightened writer, every 
sincere seeker of truth, of all denominations, will find 
fuller information and far clearer illustration of the sub- 
jects discussed in this book. And to aid him in his search 
for truth, the titles of some of the principal theological 



IV. ADVERTISEMENT. 

works of Swedenborg, and the places where they may be 
procured, are here indicated. 

Price* 

Arcana Coelestia, 12 vols., 8vo., $30 00 

Apocalypse Revealed, 3 vols., l2mo., 3 00 

Apocalypse Explained, 6 vols., 8vo., 16 00 

The True Christian Religion, 1 vol., 8vo., .... 2 75 

Heaven and Hell, 1 vol., 12mo., % . 75 

Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and 

the Divine Wisdom, 1 vol., 12mo., 50 

Do. do. the Divine Providence 

1 vol., 8vo., 1 75 

Four Leading Doctrines — of the Lord, of Life, of 

Faith, and of the Sacred Scriptures, 1 vol., 12mo., . 75 
The Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, 

pamphlet, 12mo., 12§ 

These works, with others pertaining to the new church, 
are kept for sale by Otis Clapp, 121 Washington Street, 
Boston ; Samuel Colman, Bookseller, 56 Gold Street, New 
York; Daniel Goddard, 109 North Second Street, Phila- 
delphia; T. S. Arthur, 8 North Street, Baltimore; and 
Southworth Holmes, Main Street, near Fifth Street, 
Cincinnati. 

Philadelphia, May, 1840. 



PREFACE. 



These sermons are designed for persons, especially young 
persons, just embracing the doctrines of the new church. They 
are, therefore, written in a diffuse style, with much plainness 
and familiarity of illustration, without any pretensions to 
originality of thought, and with only an effort, perhaps an 
ineffectual one, to make the abstruse and fundamental princi- 
ples of our theology plain to the commonest minds. To do 
this well and effectively, would be the greatest use, worthy of 
the utmost efforts of the strongest minds. The author dare not 
hope that his effort can prove successful. But his best feelings 
have been exercised in making it, and his prayer now is that 
He who can give increase to the planting and watering of his 
weakest agents, will, in his mercy, bless it with unforeseen pro- 
ductiveness. 

Young persons, when first embracing the doctrines of the new 
church, are sometimes subjected to doubts, owing to infestations 
from those of different faiths with whom they are obliged to as- 
sociate. The reason of these doubts seems to be given in the 
following law of the spiritual world : " It is to be noted that it is 
according to the laws of order, that no one ought to be per- 
suaded instantaneously concerning truth, that is, that truth 
should instantaneously be so confirmed as to leave no doubt 
concerning it. The reason is, because the truth which is so im- 
pressed, becomes persuasive truth, and is without any extension, 
and also without any yielding. Such truth is represented in the 
other life as hard, and of such a quality as not to admit good 
into it, that it may become applicable. Hence it is, that, so 
soon as any truth is presented before good spirits in the other 
life by manifest experience, there is presently afterwards pre- 
sented some opposite which causes doubt. Thus it is given 
them to think and consider whether it be so, and to collect rea- 
sons, and thereby to bring that truth rationally into their minds. 



VI. PREFACE. 

Hereby the spiritual sight has extension, asvto that truth, even to 
opposites." (A. C.7298.) 

From this it appears to be orderly, both that doubts should 
be experienced in the reception of the true faith, and that those 
doubts should be removed by rational confirmations of its truths* 
On this ground a reasoning method will be found to form a pro* 
minent feature of these sermons. For a chief design in writing 
them was, to furnish reasons suited to remove the doubts incident 
to young and ingenuous receivers of our faith, and to enable 
them to bring the truths of that faith rationally into their minds. 

Reasoning whether a thing be so or not so will never bring 
a negating mind into the perception of what is. The mind itself 
must first be true before it can perceive what is true. It is easy 
to believe things to be as we love to have them : but nothing is 
so difficult as to reason a man into a belief of that which he 
does not love. The natural man does not love spiritual truths ; 
and hence, it is not only difficult to reason him into a belief of 
them, but it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for him to 
comprehend them. Now the truths which the New Jerusalem 
teaches are eminently spiritual. Hence the natural man is prone 
to negate them. While the evils of his will are quiescent, he 
may give a mere intellectual assent to these truths, but he will 
always deny them in spirit whenever they touch his life. They 
cannot be perceived until, by the life of the doctrines that contain 
them, spiritual discernment is attained ; when a man ceases to 
be natural and becomes spiritual. Therefore we do not imagine 
that natural men are to be converted to our faith by argument, 
but by that change of internal state, which Divine Providence, 
in the exercise of some of his infinite means, effects. 

Still, as it is admissible to reason whether a thing be so or 
not so, when the end is to conform truths already admitted on 
a ground of faith, rational argument has been used here in 
illustrating and confirming the truths contained in the doctrines 
of the true church. And although we cannot hope to convince 
confirmed negators by rational arguments for our tenets against 
their faith, yet we may free and defend ourselves from doubts 
respecting our own faith, which their sphere may infuse into us 
during our daily intercourse with them. 

The mode of contrasting our views with others has been 
adopted, not for the purpose of attacking and putting down the 
principles or men of any prevailing denominations, but simply 
for the purpose of confirming ourselves in the rational and vital 
reception of the most essential principle of our faith, which can- 
not be so distinctly seen as when it is contrasted with its opposite. 



CONTENTS, 



SERMON I. 

Jesus and the Father are one. — John, xiv. 8 — 11. 

SERMON II. 
True nature of the Spirit that testifies of Jesus.— -John, xv. 26. 

SERMON III. 
The Nature and Necessity of a Second Coming of the Lord, in respect to the 
regeneration of the individual soul, together with a disquisition on the in- 
ternal and external revelation of truth, and an incidental explanation of 
the Lord's declaration that the Father is greater than he. — John, xiv. 28. 

SERMON IV. 

The Holy Spirit is not a Person separate from Jesus Christ, but is a Divine 
Sphere proceeding from him. — John, xx. 22. 

SERMON V. 

What are the three Constituent Principles of Deity ? — John, i. 1, 4, 14- 

SERMON VI. 
The three Constituent Principles of Deity are in Jesus Christ, so as to con- 
stitute him God alone. — Matthew, xxviii. 18, 14. 

SERMON VII. 

Jesus Christ is God alone because he is possessed of all the Divine Attributes. 

— Matthew, xxviii. 18. 

SERMON VIII. 
Jesus Christ, or the Humanity of Jehovah, or the Reactive Principle of Deity, 

is the Proper Object of Christian Worship. — Psalm ii. 10. 

SERMON IX. 
Jesus Christ was worshiped when on earth. — Matthew, xxviii. 9. 

SERMON X. 
Jesus Christ was not only worshiped on earth, but is now worshiped in 
heaven, and, therefore, was presumably the Object of Apostolic Worship. 
— Revelation, v. 3. 

SERMON XI. 
That Jesus Christ was the God of the Apostles, proved from their Epistles, 
together with an Exposition of the Ground and Nature of the Distinction 
which the Apostles make between Jesus and the Father, and a considera- 
tion of the question, If the Apostles saw clearly that Jesus Christ and the 
Father are one person, why did they not utter this truth plainly ? 



Vlll. CONTENTS. 

SERMON XII. 
That Jesus Christ was the God of the Apostles, proved particularly from the 
Epistles of John. — Isaiah, ix. 6. 

SERMON XIII. 

Statement of the Difficulty which the Sensual Mind has in conceiving the 
Unity of God and Man in one person, with a Declaration and Explanation 
of the New-Church Faith, both general and particular, concerning the 
Lord, whereby the Lord's alternate states of humiliation and glorification 
are brought to bear upon the difficulty in question. — Matthew, xxvii. 46. 

SERMON XIV. 

The Doctrine of the Lord's Alternate States of Humiliation and Glorification 
made to explain the Apparent Separation of Jesus and the Father, so as 
to consist with the idea of their real Unity and Identity ; together with a 
consideration of the Unitarian Objections to the views of the New Church 
on this subject ; and a disclosure of the Root of the Difficulty which is felt 
in receiving those views. — John, a:. 17, 18, 19. 

SERMON XV. 

Consideration of the Lord's apparently contradictory assertions both of his 
equality and inferiority to the Father. — Total difference between the New- 
Church and Unitarian Views of this subject. — True Reason of this wide 
difference. — And a demonstration that the Divine Essence must have had 
a Divine Form to effect either creation, or redemption and salvation. — 
Isaiah, lix. 16. 

SERMON XVI. 

A Familiar Illustration of what the Divine Humanity of the Lord is. — 
Jeremiah, iv. 25. 

SERMON XVII. 

The Doctrine of a Divine Humanity the Touchstone which is to try who belong 
to the True Christian Church, and to be the means of breaking up all existing 
Denominations of the Old Christian Church, by separating its Wheat from 
its Chaff, or secerning its Spiritual from its Natural Men. — Luke, xx. 18. 

SERMON XVIII. 

The Necessity of Redemption. — An Answer to the Question, What did Jesus 
Christ come for ? In which it is shown that Jesus Christ came to Redeem 
and Save Mankind by subduing the Hells, reducing the Heavens to order, 
and thereby establishing a True Church on earth. — Matthew, ix. 12, 13. 

SERMON XIX. 

The True Nature of the New Birth, in an explanation of what is meant by 
being born of water and the spirit. — John, Hi. 5. 

SERMON XX. 

The Necessity of the New Birth, together with a demonstration of the gradual 
and progressive nature of this change ; and of the source from whence 
alone it can be effected. — John, Hi. 7. 

SERMON XXI. 

The Sum of all True Religion is the Life of Use from the Love of Use for its 
own sake. — Matthew, vi. 33. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The entire series, of which the sermons published in this 
volume form a part, was originally delivered in Cincinnati. 
After their delivery it was the design of the author to work 
them up into articles for a periodical publication which he was 
then editing in that city. But being subsequently removed, in 
the Divine Providence, to another quarter of the general 
church, and yielding to repeated requests to have these sermons 
published elsewhere, it seems proper that the preceding parts, 
which are necessary to complete the series, should be published 
in connection with them. Therefore, four numbers, which 
originally appeared in u The Precursor," the periodical work 
above alluded to, under the head " Doctrines of the New 
Church," are here presented as an introduction. These four 
numbers were so many articles dicussing — 
I. THE UNITY AND TRINITY OF GOD. 

II. ) THE DIVINE TRINITY— SHOWING THAT THERE IS 

III. $ A TRINITY IN THE ONE GOD. AND SHOWING 

IV. THAT THERE MUST BE A TRINITY IN GOD. 

I. The Unity and Trinity of God, — These principles 
have ever been elemental and fundamental in all christian 
theology. They are subjects so trite, and made so thread- 
bare by immemorial and all varied discussion, that it is 
perhaps impossible to give to them any forms of newness. 
It is essential, however, that they should be noticed in the 
formal presentation and exposition of any doctrinal system ; 
and the mists which have shrouded them with utter darkness 
in the old church, have made it especially needful that they 
should be placed in clear light when we essay to unfold the 
lucid doctrines of the new. It will be our aim to make them 
clear to common minds, although, in the effort, we may incur 

2 



2 INTRODUCTION. 

the charge of commonplace dullness by uncommon ones. And, 
in our discussion of these and other topics, we shall contrast, as 
we go along, the views of the new church with those of the 
old, because " every perception of a thing is according to 
reflection relative to discriminations arising from contraries in 
various modes and degrees," (A. C. 7812,) and because " we 
have no idea of truth without falsity" (H. K. to C. 17.) 

As the Divinity is the First and the Last of all things, there- 
fore the true knowledge of him is the foundation of religion, 
and the doctrine concerning him is the corner stone of the 
church : consequently, a proper idea of the Divine Being is the 
first subject of theological instruction. 

In discussing this subject at some length, we shall take for 
granted the divine existence and unity, and shall, in the first 
place, show, from Scripture and the nature of things, that 
there is and must be a trinity in the one God ; secondly, that 
this trinity is in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
thirdly, that Jesus Christ, or the son, ought to be directly 
approached in worship ; fourthly, that he was worshiped 
when on earth ; fifthly, that he is now worshiped in heaven ; 
sixthly; that he was very presumably the God of the apostles; 
seventhly, that, therefore, he solely is the only true object of 
all christian worship ; eighthty, that he came into the world to 
subdue the hells, to restore the heavens, and by these means 
to redeem and save mankind ; ninthly, that he effected this 
subjugation, restoration, redemption, and salvation, by a human 
nature which he took unto himself in the world and made 
divine ; and, tenthly, that now the doctrine of the divinity of 
his humanity is the touchstone by which the christian church 
is to be tried. 

But before we proceed, it may be well, in this paper, just to 
glance at the subject of the divine unity. As already premised, 
we take for granted that God is, and that he is one. For the 
voice of enlightened reason, and the express language of Holy 
Writ, unequivocally pronounce that there is one, and but one, 
God. This truth is written as it were on the frontlet of crea- 
tion. It is declared by the unity of design, and the coherency 
and harmony of operation, every where conspicuous in the 
universe. Hence there is a universal impression that the Di- 
vine Being is individual : so much so, that nothing can be more 
revolting to the common sense of mankind than the idea of a 
plurality of gods. 

The very definition of the Deity clearly evinces the indi- 
viduality of his nature. He is defined, an infinite, eternal, 



INTRODUCTION. 3 

omniscient and omnipotent being ; and it is veiy manifest that 
there cannot be more than one such being, for the idea of two 
infinites, or two omnipotents, is absurd. 

The idea which every rational mind forms to itself of the 
Deity also shows that he is one. We conceive that he has life 
in himself, or suppose and admit that he is essential and unde- 
rived life. Now it is perfectly manifest that a self-existing 
being cannot generate another being that is seZf -existent. 
For this involves contradiction and absurdity in the very terms : 
since that which is generated derives existence from that which 
generates, and of course cannot exist of itself. Hence it is 
impossible for God to generate a god. And thus there can be 
but one God. 

This truth, which is so clearly demonstrable by reason, is as 
explicitly set forth in the Sacred Scriptures. " Hear, O Israel, 
the Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. vi. 4.) " I am the 
Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides me.' 5 
(Tsa. xlv. 5.) " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of 
the earth : for I am God, and there is none else." (v. 22.) " I 
am the Lord thy God, and thou shalt know no God but me." 
(Hosea, xiii. 4.) " Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel ; I 
am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no 
God." (Isa. xliv. 6.) "And the Lord shall be king over all the 
earth : in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one." 
(Zech. xiv. 9.) 

We assume, then, that God is one, and proceed now to dis- 
cuss the subject of a divine trinity. 

In consequence of the above express declarations of the 
Sacred Scriptures, all denominations of Christians admit and 
maintain the unity of God. But they entertain very different 
ideas of the nature of this unity. In general the old christian 
church resolves itself into two parties; one of which maintains 
that God is a simple oneness of being, and the other that his 
existence is tripartite. The one party of course denies, and 
the other affirms, the doctrine of a trinity. We, who believe 
that we have received the doctrines of a new church, sent 
down from the Lord out of heaven by the medium of an agent 
whom he raised up, enlightened, and commissioned expressly 
to teach them, hold, in common with the two parties just men- 
tioned, that God is one ; but differ from the former in asserting 
that there is a trinity, and from the latter in denying that this 
is a trinity of persons. 

Trinitarians of the old school divide the godhead into three 
persons, to each of which they assign distinct offices. What 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

they mean by person it is difficult to apprehend ; and even 
they are not agreed among themselves as to what is to be 
understood by this word. But whatever it means, they assert 
that each person is " of himself" God. Hence you will find 
in the Litany of one of the most respectable denominations of 
the old church, adoration addressed in the form of separate 
supplications to " God the father," "God the son," and u God 
the holy ghost." Still, however, they aver, that these three 
persons, each of which is of himself God, are not three gods, 
but one god. And they aver this, because the contrary would 
be repugnant to reason and common sense. They assert that 
these three, — though clearly and definably distinct and sepa- 
rate, — are some how one. They do not undertake to say how : 
this they consider an impenetrable mystery ; a mystery which 
no human understanding can see into, and which it is the 
height of presumption to attempt to understand. It is, they 
say, a holy mystery, which is to be believed, whether it is 
understood or not, because it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. 
Thus Trinitarians of the old church hold to one God in three 
persons — God the father, Creator, God the son, Redeemer, 
and God the holy ghost, Regenerator and 5 Sanctifier. And 
though they say these three persons are one god, they believe 
each is separate and distinct from the others. For they will 
refer you to the baptism of our Lord by John, where the 
voice from heaven says, " This is my beloved son," and will 
ask you if the father and the son are not here clearly separate, 
and of course distinct. They will tell you, too, that the son 
intercedes at the right hand of the father, and of course is 
separate and distinct from him. And they will ask you if the 
holy ghost does not proceed from the father and the son, and 
they will say, if he proceeds from them, he cannot but be a 
separate person. Hence they believe in a trinity of separate 
and distinct persons. 

But the idea of the trinity as entertained by the new church 
is essentially different. The new church believes there is one 
God in one person, and that this one God consists of a trinity 
of distinct principles, which have only a representative personi- 
fication in the Sacred Scriptures as father, son, and holy 
ghost. She believes that this trinity is essential to the exis- 
tence of the one God. She believes that, if either part of it 
were taken away, the others could not exist. And hence she 
believes that the father, the son, and the holy ghost, though 
they may be distinct, are not, and cannot be separate : and 
she believes that they are in no other sense distinct than end, 



INTRODUCTION. 5 

cause and effect, or soul, body and conduct, or will, under- 
standing and act, or love, wisdom and use. Hence she 
believes that three divine principles are distinctly one in God, 
and thus that there is a trinity in unity : in other words, that 
the godhead consists of a trine, which is indispensable to 
every one, viz : an essential, a formative, and a spherical prin- 
ciple ; and that these three are distinctly one in their subject, 
which, as to the divine, or a human, being, is one person. 

The difference, then, between the old church and the new 
church is, that the former believes there is one God in a trinity 
of separate and distinct persons, while the latter believes there 
is a triune God in one person. Consequently, it is the peculiar 
and distinguishing trait of the new church, as respects the 
doctrine of the trinity, that, while the old church believes the 
godhead is in three separate and distinct persons, she holds 
that the Lord is constituted by three divine principles, which 
are three essential requisites of one person. 

Thus we trust we have distinctly, because distinctively, set 
forth our view of the trinity. Be it then clearly understood, that 
we do not contend for a trinity of separate or individually and 
functionally distinct divine existences, but, for a threefold dis- 
tinction in the essential constituents of the one Divine Beincr. 

o 

II. The Divine Trinity. — We have assumed the exist- 
ence and unity of God; and wejiave distinctly stated our view 
of the divine trinity. We proceed in this paper to show, from 
the Word, that there is a trinity in the one God. 

The passages of Scripture which assert in just so many 
words that there is a triple principle in the godhead, are not 
numerous. But many passages prove this truth inferentially. 
And the whole Word is full of it in its spiritual meaning. 
But in view of the letter of the Word we would premise, that 
the Bible must be consistent ; and therefore, the unequivocal 
meaning of one passage cannot be contradicted by the real 
meaning of any other, however seemingly conflicting they may 
be. Hence, if we can deduce the existence of a trinity from a 
single passage of the Word in the letter, we shall claim to 
have attained our end. 

Now, in our view, the existence of such a trinity as we con- 
tend for is shown most unequivocally in this passage, from 
Genesis xviii. 1 — 5, " And the Lord appeared unto Abraham 
in the plains of Mamre : and he sat in the tent door in the 
heat of the day; and he lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, lo, 
three men stood by him : and when he saw them, he ran to 

2* 



6 INTRODUCTION 

meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself towards the 
ground, and said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy 
sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant : let a little 
water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest 
yourselves under the tree ; and I will fetch a morsel of bread, 
and comfort ye your hearts ; after that ye shall pass on ; for 
therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, 
as thou hast said." 

To understand this passage fully, we should see it in its 
spiritual sense. But it would be contrary to our design in 
these papers, to unfold these verses as to their entire spiritual 
import. It is sufficient for our present purpose to direct atten- 
tion to the fact which they state, that the Lord appeared 
to Abraham under the representative and significative per- 
sonification of three men. For on this fact we ground our 
argument. 

But in remarking upon these verses we must regard them as 
having a spiritual meaning, although we do not undertake to 
show fully what that meaning specifically is. For it is only 
from this spiritual ground that the true meaning of their literal 
sense can be seen. We at once, then, take the ground that 
what Abraham here saw, was a vision. This is manifest 
from the fact, that angels, as they are spiritual beings, cannot 
be seen by the reflection of natural light. And hence Abra- 
ham could not have seen them with his natural eyes. It was 
a vision similar to those which the prophets had — similar to 
to that of the three disciples when they saw the Lord trans- 
figured on the mount — similar to that of Mary Magdalene, in 
which she saw "two angels in white, sitting, the one at the 
head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had 
lain." (John, xx. 12.) It was similar also to those visions that 
the disciples had of our Lord, in which they communed and 
ate with him after his ascension from the sepulchre. And it 
was likewise similar to the visions of the martyred Stephen 
and of St. John. The things beheld by these persons respectively 
were objects seen in the light of heaven or the spiritual world, 
thus by the opening of the spiritual sight. For in the case of 
Stephen it is said that he saw the heavens opened, and in the 
case of St. John it is expressly said he was " in the spirit on 
the Lord's day." What they saw, therefore, was in spiritual 
and not in natural vision. And we may presume it was the 
same in the case of Abraham and the rest, inasmuch as the 
objects which they saw were spiritual objects. 

But as the spiritual sight can be opened in a state of bodily 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

wakefulness, and consists in the mind's consciousness being 
raised above the sphere of natural into the sphere of spiritual 
existences, while the natural plane of the mind is quiescent, — 
as in a reverie, — the objects seen by the spiritual eye would 
seem, to a person not aware of the fact that there is a spiritual 
sight distinct from the natural sight and that his spiritual sight 
was opened, as existing in the natural world : much the same 
as when a person has had a remarkably impressive dream, he 
can hardly divest himself of the notion that the things seen 
and heard in the dream have been actual natural occurrences. 
The only difference is, that, in the case of the dream, the 
transition from sleep to wakefulness, or from bodily quiescence 
to bodily activity, makes the person sensible of his two states 
of consciousness, and thus enables him to discriminate between 
them: whereas, in the case of the visions, the spiritual sight 
passing through the natural sight, which is now quiescent or 
altogether subservient, the person has nothing to mark the two 
states of his consciousness, and hence the spiritual objects seem 
to be natural objects. And thus, when those spiritual objects 
were persons, the circumstance of the spiritual eye being 
opened and closed would be attended by the natural appearance 
of spiritual beings coming and departing. Thus, " when the 
doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of 
the Jews, and Jesus came and stood in the midst," (John, xx. 
19,) it doubtless appeared to his disciples as a natural event, 
and they seemed to see him with their natural eyes ; but it was 
manifestly a spiritual vision, because the walls of the room 
where they were assembled, which did obstruct their natural 
sight, were no obstruction to the Lord's apparent natural 
entrance. So in the case of Abraham, the approach of the 
Lord to him in the form of three men appeared to him as a 
natural event ; when in fact it was a spiritual event, occurring 
to the view of his spiritual sight. For Jehovah appeared to him 
under angelic forms, which, being spiritual, evidently could not 
have been seen naturally. And as Abraham probably was not 
aware that he saw by the opening of his spiritual sight, and thus 
rested in the natural appearance ; hence it is recorded as an 
historical event, that three men stood before him as he sat in his 
tent door; and it is related that he performed natural offices to 
them. It is however manifest that all this must have been a 
spiritual occurrence of the merely mental world, seen by Abra- 
ham's spiritual eyes; and was but a representative imaging of 
divine and spiritual things, intended for the church in all ages. 
For these things, in common with other historical events which 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

are recorded in the Old Testament, "happened," as Paul 
says, " for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition* 
upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Cor. x. 11.) 
The end of the Divine Being in giving man a revelation, is 
the salvation of his soul. He could not therefore have given 
the Bible simply as an historical relation of events which took 
place in the early ages of the world : for how can the mere 
knowledge of an historical event avail to the soul's salvation ? 
But when the historical event is supposed to be representative 
of spiritual and divine realities, and is supposed to be related 
for the purpose of embodying those realities in sensible images 
and of thereby representing them to the human mind, so that 
when those sensible images are in the mind of man, angels 
can be associated with him thereby ; we can very readily con- 
ceive how the divine end in giving that relation would be 
attained. For those spiritual and divine realities, when so 
communicated to the soul of man through angelic influence, 
might, by their enlightening and purifying effects on his will and 
understanding, save those faculties of his mind from evil and 
false principles. We say, then, that this historical event which 
is related as having occurred to Abraham in this world, was a 
representative imaging of divine and spiritual things intended 
for the church in all ages. We call it a representative imag- 
ing ; for though these might have been, and doubtless were, ac- 
tual angelic beings, still they were a representative personifica- 
tion of the Lord. For it is said " the Lord appeared unto him" 
— " and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men 
stood by him, and when he saw them, he ran to meet them 
from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground, and 
said, my Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not 
away, I pray thee, from thy servant." All which shows that 
these three men were characters representative of the one God. 
They were representative, because they purported to be the 
Lord, who is God ; but were not actually God, for Abraham 
saw them, and " no man hath seen God at any time." (John, L 
18.) And they were representative of the one God, because 
Abraham addressed them as one. He calls them my Lord; and 
throughout the chapter they are called the Lord, and in most- 
instances spoken of in the singular number. Thus in the last 
verse it is said, M And the Lord went his way as soon as he 
had left communing with Abraham : and Abraham returned 
unto his place." We may here observe, incidentally, that this 
expression, " Abraham returned unto his place," is a further 
proof of Abraham's having been in a spiritual state when he 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

• 

saw the Lord as three men : for it denotes that he came again 
into his previous natural state. As before, his transition from 
a natural to a spiritual state was attended by the circumstance 
of the Lord's appearing, so here, his return to a natural state 
is accompanied by the appearance of the Lord's going away. 

Now this is our argument. Abraham saw the Lord repre- 
sentatively ; for he could not see the Lord himself and live. 
(Exod. xxxiii. 20.) But a representation of the Lord must have 
corresponded to his nature ; or else, it could not have brought 
him forth to view. Now this representation of the Lord pre- 
sented him as three men. Therefore, there is something 
threefold in his nature. And thus we prove there is in God a 
trinity. Were there not, then, another text in Scripture, on 
this alone we would boldly take our stand and confidently pro- 
claim a trinity in God ! 

But, say the Tripersonalists, Granted. We too proclaim 
that there is a trinity in God, and bring this same passage to 
prove that this is a trinity of persons. For, if this representa- 
tion indicates the Lord's nature, — as he is represented by three 
men, and three men are three persons, — therefore, the Lord in 
his nature is three persons. No! we answer. This represen- 
tation only indicates that there are in the Lord's nature three 
constituent principles. For the Word of God is so written 
that it uses sensible forms to represent and signify spiritual 
principles in the church and heaven, or divine principles 
in God. And the person of a man is his outward form. 
Hence his person must represent his inward principles. 
And when the forms or persons of men are used in the 
Word to represent the Deity, they represent the princi- 
ples which constitute him. Thus Moses represented the Lord 
as to his divine law, or as to the principle of truth. Aaron 
represented the Lord as a divine priest, or as to the principle 
of goodness. David represented the Lord as a divine king, or 
as a principle of truth ruling and governing the refractory 
passions of men by bringing them into obedience to its dictates. 
So universally a form or person is never used in the Word 
simply to suggest an idea of itself and no more, but to involve 
and present some principle to which it corresponds. This is 
the case in the passage before us. Therefore, when the Lord 
was presented as three men, it did not indicate that he was 
three men in form, but that there were in his nature three prin- 
ciples which could be so represented. So when the Lord is 
called a shield and buckler, it is not meant that he is in that 
form, but that he effects that for the spirit of him who trusts in 



1 INTRODUCTION. 

him which a shield does for his body ; namely, defends it from 
evil. Thus, in this instance, the sensible forms of a shield 
and buckler are used to represent the Lord as a principle of 
defence. So when the Lord was represented to John in a vision 
as a lamb standing in the midst of the throne, it did not indi- 
cate that he is actually in the form of a lamb, but represented 
him as to a certain principle of his nature, the principle of 
innocence, to which the lamb corresponds. We repeat, then, 
that these three men represented principles and not persons. 

Again, we argue from this passage that there is a trinity of 
principles in the individual Divine Being, and not a trinity of 
individualities in the godhead, because Abraham addressed 
these three men as one person, calling them my Lord. For 
thus we reason : if the three men represented three persons, 
then Abraham would have addressed them as Lords, and would 
uniformly have spoken to and of them as plural in number. 
But this he did not. For though he saw three, he addressed 
them as one. We conclude, therefore, that these three repre- 
sented three essential constituents of one Lord. 

Hence we are not to regard this figurative representation 
as indicating that there are three persons in the one God ; but 
that the one God is constituted one person by three distinct but 
essential principles of his being. These principles are distinct, 
because they are not absolutely the same; and they are essen- 
tial, because without them he could not be one person. Thus 
these three are distinctly one. 

But it is perhaps difficult for some minds to conceive how 
three can be distinctly one. Let us endeavor to illustrate this. 
Take for example that mathematical figure called a cube. 
How are three essential mathematical properties distinctly one 
cube? The properties of a cube are length, breadth and depth. 
These properties are distinct, because the length is not the 
breadth, but is altogether different from it; and the length or 
breadth is not the depth. But they are essential, because 
without all three of these properties the figure would not be a 
cube. Were there merely length and breadth, the figure would 
not be a cube, but a superficies. Still less would it be a cube, 
if there were only one of these properties. Hence, length, 
breadth and depth are essential properties of one cube. And 
being distinct, therefore they are distinctly one cube. Just so 
it is with God. There are three principles essentially consti- 
tuent of his being. What these principles are, it would be out 
of place here to say. We merely take the fact as set forth 
in the passage of the Word under consideration. In this pas* 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

sage the Lord is represented as three, and addressed as one. 
From which it appears that there is a threefold something in 
the one God. This, we maintain, is a threefold principle. 
Or, we maintain that there are three principles by which God 
is constituted one person. And we present to view the sensible 
figure of a cube, not to show the quality of the divine princi- 
ples, but simply to illustrate how three principles can constitute 
one thing ; and thus show how three divine principles may 
constitute one God. The nature of those principles will be 
discussed hereafter. 

Now it is merely this distinction of the constituent princi- 
ples of the one God which was represented to Abraham by the 
three men. Of this he doubtless had an intuitive perception. 
Hence, when he regarded the Deity in his complex character, 
he addressed these three men as one Lord : but when he 
regarded the Deity as to his distinctive constituent properties, he 
addressed the one Lord as several. So the mathematician, 
when he looks at the cube in the concrete, considers it one 
thing. But, to serve the purposes of abstract reasoning, he 
regards its three essential properties as distinct and several. 
In some cases, as in an algebraic process, he even considers 
these properties as separate from the subject in which they 
necessarily inhere, and represents them by distinctive charac- 
ters. But this does not destroy the individuality of the subject, 
and imply that there are three separate things in one cube. 
So neither did Abraham, when he addressed the three men as 
several, destroy the individuality of God, and imply that there 
are three persons in the one God. He addressed the men as 
several only when he regarded the essential constituent divine 
principles distinctively. He still regarded them as one in their 
subject; that is, as existing in and constituting one divine per- 
son. Hence he most frequently addresses them as one, and 
speaks of them in the singular number. Of course, God is 
individual in person, though his individuality may consist of a 
threefold principle. And as he was represented to Abraham 
as three men, we argue that he does consist of three principles. 
And as Abraham addressed these three as one, we argue that 
they are the constituent principles of one God. Therefore, in 
our view, this passage of Scripture affords incontrovertible proof 
that there is a trinity in the one God. 

III. Same Subject Continued. — It is usual for those who 
believe in a trinity to bring forward, in proof of their belief, 
Genesis, i. 26, " let us make man in our image." But we do 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

not advance this passage, because we think the plurality of the 
pronouns herein does not prove a trinity. It would serve just 
as well to prove that there are four, or a hundred, as three. 
Nor do we think that one person in the godhead could say to 
two other persons, " let us make man in our image ;" because 
it is utterly inconceivable how they could be so separate as to 
talk to one another and yet not be three gods. Besides, it is 
clear that God did not say this as three persons conversing 
together, first, because it is afterwards said, in the singular 
number, (verse 27,) " So God created man in his own image ;" 
and, secondly, because man when created in God's image was 
in one person and not in three. 

But in Luke, i. 35, it is written, "And the angel answered 
and said unto her, The holy ghost shall come upon thee, and 
the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also 
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the 
son of God." Here mention is made of three, namely, the 
Highest, the holy ghost, and the son of God. 

In Matthew, i. 16, 17 — "And Jesus, when he was baptized, 
went up straightway out of the water : and, lo, the heavens 
were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God, descend- 
ing like a dove, and lighting upon him; and, lo, a voice from 
heaven, saying, This is my beloved son, in w r hom I am well 
pleased." Here, too, there are three indicated — God, the spirit 
of God, and the son of God. 

We are aware that this passage is a strong redoubt of the 
tripersonal scheme. But if we regard it in the same light in 
which we viewed the passage from Genesis in our last nnmber, 
this text will be seen to afford to that scheme no defence. Let 
it be observed, then, that what was here seen by the Lord, 
although an occurrence actually taking place before the mind's 
eye of a person living on this earth, was a representation in 
the spiritual world. For it is said " the heavens were opened." 
Of course, the things seen by the Lord were in the heavens. 
This is a mode of expression uniformly used in the Word in 
reference to the opening of the spiritual sight. Hence it is 
used by the prophets, and others, when speaking of their 
visions. Thus Ezekiel says, (i. 1,) " Now it came to pass in the 
thirtieth year," &c. " that the heavens were opened, and I 
saw visions of God." Stephen, when about to be stoned to 
death, (Acts, vii. 56,) said, "Behold, / see the heavens opened, 
and the son of man standing on the right hand of God." So, too, 
Peter, when he fell into a trance, (Acts, x. 9 — 13,) "saw heaven 
opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the 
earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts, and 
creeping things, and fowls of the air." The least reflection on 
these passages will show that the opening of the heavens 
here spoken of means an opening of the spiritual sight of men 
on earth, so as to enable them to see visual representative forms 
of spiritual and celestial things existing in heaven and the 
church. This is especially manifest from the vision of Peter. 
For he was afterwards made to understand that his vision was 
a representative mode of signifying to him this truth, "that 
God is no respecter of persons: but, in every nation, he that 
feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him," 
(verses 34, 35.) Besides it is clearly seen that " fourfooted 
beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, 
and fowls of the air" represented men and those mental quali- 
ties which constitute men, because Peter, in reference to these 
animals which he saw in his vision, says, " God hath shown 
me that I should not call any man common or unclean," (verse 
28.) Hence we may conclude it is a law of the spiritual world, 
that mental things, that is, voluntary and intellectual things, 
should be represented by visible images. And when men are 
in that state in which these images of heavenly things are seen, 
heaven is said to be opened, for such is the appearance ; but in 
fact man's visual powers are so expanded or extended, or, are 
rather so indrawn, as to see things as they exist in a heavenly 
state. This is what we mean by his spiritual sight being 
opened. This undoubtedly was the case with the Lord when 
he, as recorded in the passage of the Word which we are now 
considering, saw heaven opened, and a dove descending and 
lighting upon him, and heard a voice from heaven, saying, 
This is my beloved son. Doubtless all this appeared, at the 
time, to be an event transpiring in this natural world, but it 
was, in reality, a visual representation and spiritual perception 
of things spiritual and divine which were transpiring in the 
Lord's internal man, or in the spiritual world. Therefore 
what is said in this passage is not to be taken in its mere literal 
sense. And hence the argument, based upon this sense, that 
the father, son and holy ghost are separate and distinct per- 
sons, is fallacious. 

But even though you take this passage in its apparent mean- 
ing, it will not support the argument of the Tripersonalists. 
For, as a certain writer has remarked, if this passage, in its 
literal sense, proves any thing for the tripersonal scheme, it 
proves too much : since it proves, not only that the holy ghost 

3 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

is separate from the Lord, but that he is in the form of a 
bird! — which we presume the advocates of the personality of 
the holy ghost are not disposed to maintain. Yet this is the 
conclusion to which we must come, if we adhere to the strict 
literal sense of this passage. 

But this is not all: for, to prove the separate personality of 
the father and the son from this passage, you must suppose 
that there was an audible voice from heaven, and that this was 
actually the voice of the father. Yet the Lord says, (John, v. 
37,) respecting the father, " Ye have neither heard his voice at 
any time, nor seen his shape." It could not then have been the 
voice of the father which was heard from heaven in this case ; 
and thus the argument resting upon the supposition that the 
father was, as a person, where the voice came from, and hence 
was separate from the son, falls to the ground. Thus is mani- 
fest the fallacy of these reasonings from appearances in the 
mere letter of the Word. And it is high time that Christians 
should awake, and open their eyes upon the spiritual import 
of that book which they believe to be the Word of God! 

In fine, the Tripersonalists might just as well argue that 
cherubim are actually in the form in which they were represent- 
ed in Ezekiei's vision, or that the Lord Jesus now actually 
exists in the form of a lamb, slain, standing in the midst of 
the throne of heaven, and that the New Jerusalem will actually 
descend from heaven in the form of a city, — because these 
things were so represented to John in vision, — as to argue, 
from our Lord's vision in the present instance, that the father 
and the holy ghost are persons separate or distinct from him, 
because he saw the spirit descend as a dove and light upon him, 
and heard a voice, as it had been the voice of the father, 
calling him his son. The separation is only an appearance. 
It is a visual representation of a certain process then going on 
in the glorification of the Lord's human nature, and indicates 
that the spirit is in him, or that he, even as to his human nature, 
is infinitely imbued with the divine spirit — "For God giveth 
not the spirit by measure unto him," (John, iii. 34.) Hence, we 
have no more right to conclude that the holy ghost is actually 
separate from the Lord Jesus, because it descended upon him in 
the form of a dove, than we have to conclude that length, breadth, 
and depth are actually separate from a cube, because the mathe- 
matician can so represent them in an algebraic process. This 
vision which the Lord saw, like that which Abraham saw, was 
representative. And if the three men, which Abraham saw, 
represented the one God without distinction of persons ; much 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

more does this three fold appearance of the dove, the voice, 
and the Lord's person, represent the same. 

Thus this passage, though it does indeed prove a trinity, 
does not prove a trinity of persons. And we deem ourselves 
justified in concluding from this passage too, that there are three 
essential divine principles in the one God. 

Besides the passages above noticed, there are many others in 
the New Testament from which the doctrine of a trinity can be 
inferentially deduced : but it is needless to do more than advert 
to the first of John, where it is said, " In the beginning was the 
word," " and the word was made flesh ;" which word made 
flesh afterwards breathed on his disciples and said " receive ye 
the holy ghost." Here mention is made of the word, " which 
was God," or the essential divine principle — the word made 
flesh, which was " Immanuel, or God with us," the " express 
image" of God's substance, the " form of God," and therefore 
the divine formative principle — and the breath, or proceeding 
influence of Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, which was 
called the holy ghost, and was the divine spherical principle. 
Thus by this passage a trinity of principles is most clearly 
proved. 

We may here just add, finally, that the Lord Jesus fre 
quently speaks of the father as in him, of himself as coming 
forth from the father, and of the holy ghost, or the comforter, 
as sent by him from the father. And in the last of Matthew 
he commands his apostles expressly to baptize all nations in 
" the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy 
ghost." In these passages, too, the same three fold distinction 
is kept up. Frequent mention is made moreover of the father, 
the son, and the holy ghost in the Epistles of the Apostles ; 
and so their testimony is given to the existence of a trinity. 
A very remarkable instance of distinct reference to a trinity in 
the one God is found in John's First General Epistle, (v. 7,) 
" There are three that bear record in heaven, the father, the 
word, and the holy ghost : and these three are one." 
Here both the trinity and unity of God are expressly asserted. 

We are aware that this is a disputed passage, and that many 
Trinitarians have relinquished their hold upon it as an authen- 
tic part of the original epistle. But we are not disposed to 
give it wholly up, both because it is quoted as genuine by the 
divinely commissioned teacher of the doctrines of the New 
Jerusalem and because there are both intrinsic and extrinsic 
evidences of its genuineness. 



16 , INTRODUCTION. 

Some of the arguments for the authenticity of this verse are: 

1. That the connection would be incomplete without it. To 
see this, just read the sixth, seventh and eighth verses consecu- 
tively. Now would not the mention in the eighth verse of 
three who bear witness in earth be too abrupt a transition from 
the sixth verse? What possible connection can there be ima- 
gined, in the drift of the apostle's ideas, between the sixth and 
eighth verses? Moreover, can there be three principles in 
earth without three correspondent principles in heaven? There 
is no question about the authenticity of the eighth verse, and if 
this is genuine, then there is a trinity in earth ; and if so, 
why should there not be a trinity in heaven also ? Is not the 
earth created of God, and does not the creation bear the image 
of its creator ? Are not " the invisible things of him, from the 
creation of the world clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that are made — even his eternal power and godhead ?" 
(Heb. i. 20.) Hence, if there is a trinity in earth, must there not 
be a trinity in God too ? And if there are three correspondent 
principles in the Divine Being, and in heaven from him, why 
not mention them ? We reason, then, that the connection 
requires the verse which is supposed to be spurious ; and, 
therefore, there is intrinsic evidence that it is in reality genuine. 

But, from what has been just advanced, we may shift our 
position, and directly argue, that, though the seventh verse be 
omitted, still the doctrine of a trinity is effectually proved by 
the eighth. For in this it is said there are three that bear 
witness in earth. And we contend that there cannot be princi- 
ples in earth which have not principles in heaven from which 
they exist and to which they correspond. And therefore, if it 
be admitted that there is a trinity in earth, it will follow that 
there is a trinity in heaven. Indeed Paul clearly shows that 
this is so, when he says he was caught up into the third hea- 
ven. Hence there is a trinity in the complex heaven. Conse- 
quently there must be a trinity in God, from whom heaven 
exists. 

2. The clause in the eighth verse, xxt ot rpets u% to h h&tv, 
which is rendered, "and these three agree in one," if rendered 
literally would read, " and these three are in (the or) that one." 
It might be rendered, " and these three correspond to that one." 
The article in the phrase hi to ev, is evidently relative, and 
relates to a one which has been previously mentioned. So lhat 
the sense of the eighth verse is in this way, too, proved to be 
defective without the seventh. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

3. The most ancient and most accurate manuscripts are 
said to contain this verse : thus affording extrinsic evidence 
that it is genuine. 

4. It rests upon the authority, among others, of Cyprian, 
one of the Fathers, who lived in the third century, before the 
rise and spread of arianism : which proves that this seventh 
verse existed in copies of John's First Epistle at a time when 
there could be no temptation to interpolate arising out of the 
arian controversy. 

We conclude, then, that this verse is authentic ; and, of 
course, the doctrine which it so unequivocally sets forth, can- 
not be impugned. But, admitting that it were not genuine, still 
the doctrine of the trinity is so interwoven with the very 
texture of the whole Sacred Scriptures, that the whole must be 
destroyed before it can be obliterated. And passages enough, 
without this, have been adduced from the Word of God to 
prove that there is a trinity in the one God. 

IV. There must be a trinity in God, — We proceed in this 
number to demonstrate that, in the nature of things, there must 
be a trinity in the one God. 

Paul says, (Rom. i. 20,) " the invisible things of God, — 
even his eternal power and godhead, — are clearly seen from 
the creation of the world, being understood by the things that 
are made." Wherefore, the nature of the Deity is discernible 
in his works. Consequently, we may reason from the essential 
principles of natural existence to the essential principles of 
divine existence, or, to use the words of the poet, we may 
" look through nature up to nature's God." 

This mode of reasoning is not only legitimate and admissible, 
but, in the present constitution of man, it is the only way in 
which he can form any adequate conceptions of the Divine 
Being. Man is born in entire ignorance and helplessness. 
And, without instruction, he cannot know even how to feed and 
clothe himself. How then can he know his creator, unless he 
be instructed ? And unless he has ideas in his mind from the 
objects of nature around him, there are no vehicles whatever 
by which instruction respecting the Deity can be conveyed to 
his mental apprehension or his moral feeling. 

" That is first which is natural, and afterwards that which 
is spiritual." The form must first be impressed on the senses, 
before the rational and intellectual faculty can apprehend its 
qualities and its essence. Hence nothing of thought or affec- 
tion can exist with man which has not with it a natural or 

3* 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

sensual idea. Qualities cannot exist without subjects in which 
they inhere ; and the mind cannot comprehend qualities 
without a distinct idea of their subjects. Hence the mind can- 
not apprehend the qualities of the Deity unless, and only in the 
degree that, it has a distinct idea of the forms which these 
qualities assume. And this is one meaning of that scripture, 
" No man cometh to the father, but by me," the son. 

The essential divine principles, which, in the unapproachable 
and indescribable adytum of their own infinite and eternal 
being, no man hath seen nor can see, flowing down by a regu- 
lar gradation of cause and effect, at length clothe themselves in 
natural forms and thus produce creation. In this plane of 
creation man first exists ; and the images of the natural forms, 
that are the outermost coverings of the divine principles from 
which they ultimately exist, form the ground-work of his mind. 
When the form is presented, and is seen, or perceived, by the 
imprinting of its image on organs suited to receive it, the quali- 
ties of that form may be gradually discerned, and thus its 
essence apprehended. And no quality can be discerned, and 
no essence apprehended, until the image of the form in which 
they inhere is thus received. And unless the qualities and 
essences of natural forms are discerned and apprehended, there 
is no possible way by which the mind can have any conception 
of the divine principles from which they exist, and which are 
most intimately within them. Hence, without the images of 
natural forms impressed on the senses, it is altogether impossi- 
ble that man can have any idea of God. But, when the images 
of these forms are thus impressed, then the perfection of man's 
wisdom consists in the eternal opening up of his mind towards 
the essential divine principles from which those forms come 
forth. 

These natural forms are the effects of the influx of spiritual 
forms as causes. They are common things which involve in- 
numerable spiritual and infinite divine particulars ; which 
particulars can never be reached or approached, before the 
common things which contain them are known and appre* 
hended. For illustration, take the case of the human body. 
This consists of various common members, which involve 
many organical, visceral, muscular, fibrous, nervous and other 
particular parts. And these again, may be traced to singular 
constituents so minute and hidden that they elude the ken of 
the most searching and scrutinizing microscopic vision. Now 
what anatomist can, or attempts to know the hidden parts of 
the human body without first becoming acquainted with its 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

common and obvious parts ? In short, what is common is an 
effect caused by the influx of what is particular. And we can- 
not discern the cause if we do not know the effect. 

Thus the only way in which man can attain to any know- 
ledge of the hidden essences of things is, by tracing effects up 
to their causes. So that it is legitimate to reason from the 
essential principles of natural existence to the essential constitu- 
ent principles of the Divine Being. In fact, these natural 
existences, or the works of creation, are the fruits of the Di- 
vine Being. And his own divine law must be universal in its 
application — " By their fruits ye shall know them." There- 
fore, by his fruits we must know him. 

Hence, if we discern that in every natural existence there is 
a threefold principle, we must conclude that there is a trinity 
in God. 

In pursuing this argument, we must take things as they are. 
It is not necessary for us to show why they are so ; nor to in- 
quire whether the Divine Being could not have constituted 
things differently. It is sufficient for us to know that the order 
in which things do exist, is the result of infinite wisdom ; and 
we are not to suppose that infinite wisdom could devise any 
other order than that which it has produced. For an infinite 
being cannot act otherwise than according to his nature — thus 
infinitely. And to suppose that he could produce any other 
order than the one he has produced, would be to suppose that 
he could produce either what is more than infinite, which is ab- 
surd ; or what is less than infinite, which is impossible. 

Our prescribed limits will not allow us to expatiate so widely 
on this head as might be necessary. And we must therefore 
confine ourselves within the narrow compass of a very cursory 
view of the general principles of natural existence. 

In starting we take this position, that a trinity is necessary 
to every unity ; which we will strive to maintain, first, by the 
fact that there is a threefold principle in every existence, and, 
secondly, by the rational deduction from this fact, that from a 
simple or metaphysical oneness of being nothing can exist; 
which will lead us directly to the conclusion that the Deity is 
not a simple oneness of being, and of course that he is a triune 
being. 

Casting our eyes over the whole scope of creation, we can- 
not but observe this fact, viz. that in every existence there are 
three things essential to that existence, namely, an inmost, a 
middle and an ultimate. These three things are the essential 
principles of all being, and universally manifest themselves as 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

action, reaction, and the operation or result of these two. In 
philosophical language these three principles are called end, 
cause, and effect. The end is the intimate, the cause is the 
intermediate, and the effect is the ultimate. The end is the 
essential principle, the cause is the formative principle, and the 
effect is the spherical or influential principle. Thus there are 
three essential principles in every one existence, which are es- 
sentially distinct the one from the others. 

That this is the constitution of things, any of us may be 
sensible by attending to the subjects of our observation or con- 
sciousness. For in whatever we behold or examine, we find an 
inmost, a middle, and an outermost. In a circle, there is a 
centre, an area, and a circumference. In the earth there is a 
centre, a spherical bulk, and a surface. In a flower of the 
field there is its essence, its form, and its odor. In ourselves 
there is an inmost, a middle, and an ultimate principle : that is, 
there is a voluntary, an intellectual, and an operative principle ; 
or a will, an understanding, and an act; or a love, a wisdom, 
and a use. And in this inmost of us are our ends, in this 
middle our causes, and in this ultimate our effects : that is, in 
our inmost are motives to action, in our middle are modes of 
action, and in our ultimate are actions themselves. So in 
every thing which is an object of our sight or consciousness, 
there is an end, a cause, and an effect — or an inmost, a middle, 
and an outermost. 

And every effect is seen to be the result of an action and a 
reaction. Our will acts, our understanding reacts, and the con- 
sequence is affection and thought. Our mind acts, our body 
reacts, and the consequence is the varied modes of bodily mo- 
tion. The head acts, the trunk reacts, and in consequence the 
animal fluids pervade the system, causing sensation in all its 
forms. The heart acts, the arteries react, and hence the blood 
circulates, producing bodily sustentation. All the viscera act, 
while the bony, muscular, membranaceous, and cuticular parts 
react, and thus the various members are formed, and the whole 
body is kept in order, symmetry, and beauty. 

Now in all these things the result of action and reaction is 
essential to the mode of existence and subsistence. And this 
is true of all nature and of every object of nature — of every 
animal, plant, and mineral — of every work of art and of every 
mechanical invention. You could not shoot a gun unless the 
barrel reacted on the expanding powder, and thus caused it to 
speed the bullet in its course. Unless the projectile tendency 
of a planet reacted on the sun's attractive power, the planet 
would not move in its orbit. Unless the earth reacted on the 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

sun's influences, no material form whatever could exist. You 
could not walk, unless the ground reacted on your feet : and 
hence the tiresome effects of walking on loose sand or newly- 
fallen snow. You could not breathe, if the air did not react 
upon your lungs. You could not speak if the various conforma- 
tions of the throat and mouth did not react on the air sent 
back again from the lungs. You could not hear your preachers, 
unless the walls of your temples and the atmosphere reacted 
on their voice. You could not understand their teachings, 
unless your minds reacted on theirs so as to give the requisite 
attention. And all preaching would be vain, unless the hearts 
of the people so reacted on its practical precepts as to bring 
them into life. 

There is, then, in every thing, action, reaction, and the result 
of these. Or, in other words, there is an active principle and 
a passive subject; and the flowing of the active into the passive, 
and the reaction of the passive on the active, produce life in 
all its varied forms. 

Thus there are in every thing end, cause, and effect. And 
these three are essential to every existence. For if you were 
to take any one away, the others would cease to exist. If, for 
instance, you take away the effect, the end and the cause would 
be nonentities for want of a power of ultimation. If you take 
away the cause, the end could not come into effect for want of 
the requisite means. And if you take away the end, cause and 
effect must of course cease for want of a first principle of their 
existence. Thus, if you take away exercise from the mind, 
it becomes enervated. If you take away understanding, will 
cannot effect its purposes. And if you take away volition, un- 
derstanding is dormant. A disorganization of the brain pro- 
duces insanity. A sudden recession of the spirit, as in the case 
of excessive fright, joy, or what not, produces instant death of 
the body. And a violent assault of the love, by some cruel 
treatment, sad disappointment, or dire calamity, oftentimes 
produces alienation of mind and premature dissolution. All 
which are instances in which the end, the cause, or the effect 
are suspended, obstructed, or taken away. So a workman 
without tools, though he has the best design and most perfect 
practical skill, can produce nothing useful. Without skill his 
design could do nothing with the best of tools. And without 
design his skill and tools would be both inoperative. 

Thus we see, that in every thing there is an inmost, a mid- 
dle, and an outermost. And we also perceive that they never 
can be blended. For they are evidently separated by discrete 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

degrees. Hence the end by any continuity can never become 
the cause. So neither can the cause ever become the effect. 
Your will by any increase or activity whatever can never 
become understanding. And your understanding can never 
become act. Or your desire can never become thought; or 
your thought speech ; except by correspondence. So that 
these three essential constituents of one thing, are and must 
be distinct. This is universal. It is true of every thing which 
comes within our observation. And hence we conclude that it 
is true with respect to the whole creation in general, and every 
part in particular. Consequently, there is a distinctly threefold 
principle in every existence. And thus a trinity is necessary 
to every existence. 

Now, — taking things as they are, and supposing that they 
could not be otherwise in the divine economy, — from the fact 
that there is a threefold principle in every existence, we reason 
that, from a simple oneness, nothing can exist. By simple 
oneness we mean oneness in a metaphysical sense — that is, 
mere, abstract oneness, or a principle of unity without a sub- 
ject of unity : which is the idea that we suppose Unitarians to 
have of the divine unity. 

In arguing this point, we lay it down as an axiom that all 
things exist and subsist from the Divine Being. Of course, 
existing from the Divine Being, they cannot exist of them- 
selves ; but must exist by virtue of life flowing into them. 
Now as every thing which exists is the result of action and 
reaction; hence there must be a twofold influx, that is an im- 
mediate and a mediate influx. For the acting principle must 
be distinct, and we have seen that it is distinct, from the react- 
ing principle : and that which acts must be distinct from that 
which reacts : since to predicate action and reaction of abso- 
lutely one and the same thing is absurd. For to do this we 
must consider absolutely one and the same thing distinctly from 
itself: which would be like considering length as distinct from 
length : than which there cannot be a greater absurdity. And 
as action and reaction are distinct and twofold, hence the influx 
of the active and reactive principles, which produces these, 
must be twofold likewise. Thus there must be the influx of 
the active principle, or life, and this is called immediate influx ; 
and the influx of that which forms the plane of operation of the 
former, and this is called mediate influx. 

Let us illustrate this. In the formation and growth of a plant, 
for instance, the germ in the seed manifests itself by expand- 
ing and clothing itself in the elements of nature. Here there 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

is the influx of life from the spiritual world into the germ, 
and the influx of the sun and earth into that material form 
which the life assumes in the natural world. The former is 
called immediate influx, not because it is life from the Divine 
Being flowing in without any media, but because it flows through 
spiritual agents, and thus is more direct than the latter, which 
comes from the same source by the round about way of 
material agents. 

Take the case of man. His spirit or active principle flows 
in from the spiritual world, and his body or reactive principle 
flows in from the natural world. So his love, affection, or 
virtue, as an active principle, flows in immediately, or from 
within, into instruction, knowledge, or wisdom, which, as a 
reactive principle, flows into him mediately, that is by instruc- 
tors and teachers, thus from without. 

So in the various parts of his body, as the hand, for instance, 
or the arm. There is the immediate influx of the soul into the 
arm, by which it acts and performs its wonted operations for 
the body; and the mediate influx of the heart and lungs, by 
which it exists as a material reactive plane for the soul's 
activity. The immediate influx in this case is by the nerves — 
the mediate by the arteries and veins : and the immediate is so 
called, because its medium, the nerves, is also the medium of 
the active principle to the heart, the source of the arteries, as 
well as to the arm, which those arteries support. That there 
is this twofold influx in the case of the arm, is proved by the 
fact, that, if you destroy the nerves, or interrupt the communi- 
cation by them, as in a paralysis, the arm loses its power of 
action, while it still exists by nourishment from the heart ; and 
if the communication from the heart is cut off, or the requisite 
supply of nourishment is lessened, as is the case in some 
diseases, the arm withers, while it is still capable of acting 
until it ceases to furnish an adequate reactive plane for the 
active principle. 

So, universally, there must be into every thing that exists 
a twofold influx. Of course, this influx must have a twofold 
source. For how can that which is twofold proceed from that 
which is absolutely simple? Manifestly, that which is abso- 
lutely simple cannot both act and react in itself. How then can 
it produce action and reaction in that which is out of itself? 
Clearly mere, abstract, simple oneness can produce nothing at 
all. It is just as impossible as it is for an apothecary to make 
a compound medicine out of one drug ; or for an arithmetician 
to compute with nothing but units ; or for a conspiracy to be 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

formed by one man. Thus nothing can exist without action 
and reaction. And action and reaction cannot exist without a 
twofold influx. And a twofold influx cannot proceed from a 
simple oneness of being. Therefore, from a simple oneness of 
being nothing can exist. 

But things do exist. And their existence is the result of 
action and reaction : which are owing to a twofold influx ; that 
is, both an immediate and a mediate influx of life from the 
Divine Being. Since, then, action and reaction, and their two- 
fold influx, cannot exist from a simple oneness of being, and 
they do exist from the Deity, therefore, the Deity is not a 
simple oneness of being. 

And further, as it is legitimate to reason from the essential 
principles of natural existence to the constituent principles of 
divine existence, and as a threefold principle is essential to 
every thing which exists in nature, hence we conclude that 
there is a threefold principle in the Deity. Thus there must 
be in the Deity, a divine active, a divine reactive, and a divine 
influential principle. And as we are not to suppose that things 
can exist in any other order than that in which they do exist, 
consequently are bound to suppose, that, as there is a trinity 
in every unity, there must be a trinity in every unity ; hence 
we conclude that in the nature of things, there must be a trinity 
in the one God. 

And this trinity does not consist in three persons or indivi- 
dualities. For every individual thing must be constituted by 
an inmost, a middle and an outermost. And hence, if there 
were three persons or individualities in the one God, there 
would be in the one God three inmosts, three middles, and 
three outermosts — or three divine actives, three divine reactives, 
and three divine influences ; which is absurd. 

But the trinity in the one God consists in three essential and 
indispensable principles, which are his inmost, his middle, and 
his outermost — that is, it consists in a divine active, a divine 
reactive, and a divine spherical principle ; which, on another 
occasion, we shall prove to be divine love, divine wisdom, and 
divine use; and which, in the divine language of the Sacred 
Scriptures, are called, — that is, are personified to the thought 
of man as, — the father, the son, and the holy ghost. Thus, 
then, " there are three that bear record in heaven — the father, 
the word, and the holy ghost ; and these three are one." 

We have now, as we proposed, proved from the Holy Word 
that there is — and have shown by rational deduction from the 
nature of things that there must be — a trinity in the one God. 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

And we have pointed out the true nature of this trinity as 
consisting, not in three divine persons, but in three indispensa- 
ble divine principles. 

To those persons, then, whose minds are not made up on 
this subject, we will, in concluding this paper, hold up to them 
a miniature portrait of the faith of the old church, and one of 
the faith of the new, in respect to the trinity. 

The old church believes — "There is but one living and true 
God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions ; of infinite 
power, wisdom, and goodness ; the maker and preserver of all 
things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this godhead, 
there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity — 
the father, the son, and the holy ghost." — "There is one per- 
son of the father, another of the son, and another of the holy 
ghost : the father is God and Lord, the son is God and Lord, 
and the holy ghost is God and Lord ; nevertheless there are not 
three gods and three lords, but one God and one Lord. For as 
we are compelled by the christian verity to acknowledge every 
person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by 
the catholic religion to say there be three gods or three lords." 

The faith of the new-jerusalem church is — That there is one 
infinite and eternal God in one divine person — that this one 
person is necessarily constituted by an active, a reactive, and 
an influential principle — which are a divine essence, a divine 
form, and a divine sphere: and that these three principles, 
which in the Scriptures are called father, son, and holy ghost, 
are distinctly one God, just as soul, body, and conduct, are 
distinctly one man. 

There are the two portraits before you. Judge ye for your- 
selves which is the best likeness of the truth. Look at them 
and compare them with the portraiture of the Divine Being, as 
seen in his Word and in his works ; and, in the free and re- 
sponsible exercise of your own reason and volition, take that 
which is conscientiously deemed best. 



SERMON I. 



JOHxN, XIV. S-rll. 

" Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the father, and it sufriceth us. 
Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast 
thou not known me, Philip 1 he that hath seen me hath seen the 
father, and how sayest thou, Show us the father 1 Believest thou not 
that I am in the father, and the father in me ! The words that I 
speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the father that dwelleth in 
me, he doeth the works. Believe me, that I am in the father, and the 
father in me." 

All religion is founded on the knowledge of God ; and the 
nature of a religion is determined by the qualit) of this know- 
ledge. Hence its idea of the Divine Being wholly characterises 
a church. Consequently the difference between churches may 
be known by knowing the difference between their ideas of the 
Deity. 

The new-jerusalem church, which is now making its ap- 
pearance in the world, differs essentially from the old christian 
church. It is a new church, not because it advances entirely 
different doctrines, but because it understands the same doc- 
trines in a new way. The old church is divided chiefly into 
Unitarians and Trinitarians. We have already stated our doc- 
trine of the unity and trinity of God, and contrasted it with those 
of these two grand divisions of the old christian church. 

But that doctrine which most peculiarly distinguishes the new 
christian church from the old, is her doctrine of the Lord, and 
especially of the divinity of his humanity. This doctrine we 
shall now proceed to unfold. However, before we go on to the 
specific consideration of this doctrine, it may be well to give 



28 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

here a brief recapitulation of what has been advanced in the 
introduction. 

We of the New Jerusalem hold, in common with Unitarians 
of the old church, to the unity of God ; yet differ from them in 
holding also to the personality of God. The Unitarian's idea 
of the divine unity is, that God is a simple, abstract divine 
principle without any conceivable divine embodyment. Our 
idea is, that God is one, because all the divine principles are 
embodied in one person. We believe, with Paul, that all the 
fullness of the godhead dwells bodily in Jesus Christ ; whereas 
the Unitarian believes that Jesus Christ is a mere man — highly 
gifted, indeed, above all other men — but still in respect to God 
a mere man ; and that God is a divine, an infinite, an eternal, 
an omnipotent and an impersonal mind, dwelling infinitely above 
and entirely out of him. 

On the other hand, we agree with Trinitarians in admitting 
a trinity ; yet differ from them in denying that this is a trinity 
of persons. They maintain that there are three divine persons 
called father, son, and holy ghost, each of which is "of him- 
self" God, and yet that these three are not three gods but 
one God. How these persons can be each of himself God, 
and yet not three gods, they do not undertake to explain. 
They say it is a mystery which is to be believed because it is 
revealed in the Bible. It is a mystery, they say, which is 
above reason, and which is to be humbly admitted on a ground 
of faith. 

But we of the New Jerusalem hold that such a trinity as that 
held by Trinitarians of the old christian church is not only 
above, but contrary, to reason ; and therefore that it cannot be 
revealed in the Word, because the Word of God cannot reveal 
that w T hich is contrary to reason and therefore impossible to be 
understood. 

Yet we do believe that the Word of God inculcates a doctrine 
of the trinity — namely, a doctrine of three divine principles 
dwelling bodily in the one divine person, Jesus Christ. What 
these principles are, we shall show hereafter, when we come 
to demonstrate, from the Word, that Jesus Christ is theip em- 



JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 29 

bodyment. And at this time will only add, as a succinct con- 
trast of our idea of God with those of old-church Trinitarians 
and Unitarians, that the Trinitarians believe there is one God 
in three persons — the Unitarians, that there is one God with- 
out any person — and we, that there is one God in one person. 

In this discourse we shall trace the difference between the 
New-jerusalemists and the Trinitarians, and therefore shall 
take for granted the divinity of our Lord, because they hold 
that he is "very God," as well as M very man." 

We proceed to show, first, negatively, that Jesus Christ and 
the father cannot be two divine beings ; and then, affirmatively, 
that Jesus and the father are one and the same. 

First, Jesus Christ and the father are not two. To show 
this, it will be necessary to bring forward the preliminary proof 
that the Lord's human, is not separate from his divine, nature ; 
and that Jesus Christ as God has not an individuality distinct 
from the father. 

In the first chapter of John, first verse, it is said, "In the 
beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and God 
was the word" — which word, it is said in the fourteenth verse, 
u was made flesh and dwelt among us." Thus God being the 
word, and the word being made flesh, it is manifest that God was 
in the flesh, or that the flesh was nothing more than an outward 
manifestation of divinity within it. Hence it is manifest that 
the flesh, that is the human nature of the Lord, had not a soul, 
or a vital principle, separate or distinct fiom the Divinity within 
it, from which as its only soul, it was originally formed and 
continued to exist. Therefore the New Jerusalem teaches that 
the Lord " was conceived from Jehovah ; hence he had a di- 
vine esse from nativity, which was to him for a soul, and con- 
sequently was the inmost principle of his life — which was 
exteriorly clothed with what he assumed from the mother." 
(A. C. 4641.) 

Again, " the Lord's soul, being derived from the father, was 
of itself the essential divinity, and his body became a likeness 
of the soul, that is, of the father," T. C. R. 21.— And lastly, 
" He whose thought is from intellectual truth, and whose per* 

4 * 



30 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

ception is from divine good, (which also was the Lord's as 
being the father's, for he had no other soul,) must needs act 
from his own proper power. # # * He who is conceived 
of Jehovah, has no other internal, that is, no other soul than 
Jehovah ; wherefore, as to his veriest life, the Lord was Jeho- 
vah himself. Jehovah, or the divine essence, cannot be divided, 
like the soul of a human father, from which an offspring is con- 
ceived. This offspring, in proportion as it recedes from the fa- 
ther's likeness, recedes from the father himself, consequently, it 
recedes more and more according to its advancement in age« 
Hence it is that the love of a father towards his children dimini- 
shes as they advance in years. But the case was otherwise with 
the Lord, who, as he advanced in age in respect to his human es- 
sence, did not recede, but continually approached to his father, 
even to perfect union. Hence it is evident that he is the same 
with Jehovah the father ; as he himself also plainly teaches." 
(A. C. 1921.) 

It is clear, then, that the Lord's human was but an embody- 
ment of Jehovah, or the essential divinity, which was in it as 
a soul. And this is seen, likewise, from the birth of our 
Lord, as recorded in Matt. i. 18, and following verses, which 
shows an essential difference between the human of the Lord 
and that of any other man. The Lord's human is there stated 
to have been conceived directly from the holy ghost or the di- 
vine sphere, and hence he was expressly called God-with-us. 
If he had possessed a human soul which intervened between 
the divine essence and us, then he would not have been God 
with us, but would have been one of us. Or he would have 
been God with us only in the sense that the Divine Being is 
with us through the medium of any mere man who is in some 
remarkable degree a subject of the divine influences — and this 
is precisely the unitarian doctrine. But the Holy Scriptures 
are explicit : " Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise : 
when, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they 
came together, she was found with child of the holy ghost" 
(Matt. i. 18.) And again, in the twentieth verse, where the 
angel, encouraging Joseph to take Mary as his wife, says, 



JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 31 

" fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife : for that which is 
conceived in her is of the holy ghost." See also Luke, i. 
26—35. 

Here you see there is no ground of equivocation ; but a plain 
and direct assertion that Jesus was the immediate offspring of 
the holy ghost, that is, of the divine emanating sphere. The 
assertion is so direct and plain, that no subterfuge can get over 
it. And hence certain theologians — to whose system it is com- 
pletely fatal — sometimes assert and maintain that these passages 
are interpolations. But this will not do : for the whole tenor 
of Scripture clearly intimates that Jehovah himself would come 
unto his people, and hence that that body, that human form, 
that person, by which he would manifest himself, would be the 
" mighty God himself," (Isaiah, ix. 6,) and not a mere man, 
highly gifted, and commissioned by God. Thus the child that 
is born unto us, is, to use the words of Paul, the express image 
of God's substance, and the brightness of his glory. And 
thus the Lord's human is a mere continent of his essential di- 
vinity. 

Since, then, the Lord's humanity is comparatively a mere 
covering of the divinity which is within it, and from which 
it immediately exists, it it clear that his human, is not separate 
from his divine, nature. 

This is confirmed moreover by his own express declarations. 
For in John, v. 20, he says, " I can of mine own self do nothing." 
And : in the nineteenth verse, " The son can do nothing of him- 
self, but what he seeth the father do : for whatsoever things he 
doeth, these also doth the son likewise." So in chapter 
xii. v. 49, "For I have not spoken of myself, but the father 
which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, 
and what I should speak." And in our text, " I speak not of 
myself, but the father that is in me, he doeth the works." It 
is evident, then, that the Lord's human nature is not separate 
from his divine nature. 

Neither is his divine nature separate from the divine nature 
of the father : that is, Jesus Christ, as God, has not an individu- 
ality distinct from the father. 



32 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

Old-cburch Trinitarians hold that the son, or second person 
in the trinity, was begotten of the father from eternity ; and 
that this son, who is himself " very and eternal God," »< took 
man's nature in the womb of the blessed virgin :" " so that 
two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the godhead and 
manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be di- 
vided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very man." From 
this it would seem that the second person of the trinity is the 
divinity in connexion with the Lord's humanity : and as this di- 
vinity, being begotten of the father, must, of course, be distinct 
from the father, it follows from this view that the Lord's di- 
vinity is distinct from the divinity of the father. But we can- 
not find any authority in the Word for the doctrine of a son of 
God begotten from eternity. Nay, we even dare to deny that 
any such doctrine can be either expressly, or by implication, 
drawn from the Sacred Scriptures. It would be irrelevant to 
our present purpose to discuss this point at length here, or we 
could prove fully that the word made flesh is the only son of 
God. We will, however, refer you again to the quotation we 
have already made from John, " In the beginning was the word, 
and the word was with God, and the word was God." Here 
there is an absolute identity explicitly stated between God and 
the word. It is not said, nor intimated, that the word was be- 
gotten of God ; but it is said expressly that the word was God : 
thus at least intimating that God and the word were one and 
the same being ; however they might — from its being said that 
the word was with God — be supposed to be in some sense dis- 
tinctly one. And this word, which was God, and the only God, 
inasmuch as there is but one God, " was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us, full of grace and truth." And it was of this flesh 
that John said, " we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only 
begotten of the father." For they could not behold the word, 
which was within the flesh ; because this was God : and it is 
expressly said, in the eighteenth verse, " No man hath seen 
God at any time, the only begotten son which is in the bosom 
of the father, he hath declared him." It was, then, the glory 
of the human principles which the JDivinity assumed — in other 



JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 33 

words, the human nature of our Lord, which the evangelist 
means when he says u we beheld his glory." But mark, this 
was the glory of the only begotten of the father. The human 
nature of the Lord, assumed in time, is, then, the only begotten 
son, which is in the bosom of the father. If, then, this son be- 
gotten in time, is the only begotten son ; how can there be 
another son begotten from eternity ? And if there is not a son 
begotten from eternity, which, as a distinct divine being, is the 
divinity of our Lord, but the word — which the Scriptures say is 
the very God, and is so with the father as to make one with 
himself — forms his divine nature, then it is perfectly clear that 
the divine nature of Jesus Christ is not separate from that of 
the father. 

But further, if we admit that Jesus Christ is in any sense God, 
it is altogether irrational to suppose that he can have an in- 
dividuality distinct from the father. The idea we have of God 
is, that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangably the same ; that 
he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. If, then, Jesus 
Christ is God, he must be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, 
and " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." But, if so, 
how can he have an individuality separate or distinct from the 
father ? If there is a deity, called the father, separate and dis- 
tinct from the divine nature of the Lord Jesus, then there are 
two infinite beings ; which cannot be, for the supposition of 
two infinites is infinitely absurd. Nor does it avail to say, 
that they are not separate, but are in some way mystically 
united so as to make one. For they are not supposed to be ab- 
solutely one and the same ; but, notwithstanding their unity, 
they are still imagined to be distinct individualities, having dis- 
tinct characteristics, and distinct functions to perform — one being 
creator, another redeemer, and the third regenerator : and they 
cannot be in any possible degree distinct, in this sense, unless 
the one possesses something which the others do not. But this 
also involves an absurdity ; for this distinctive something in 
the one would detract from the infinity of the other. The dif- 
ficulty is the same, too, whether we suppose them to possess 



34 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

something different in kind, or something respectively their own 
of the same kind. 

The fact is, the attributes of deity are absolutely incommu- 
nicable ; and the idea of a God's making or generating a god 
is utterly absurd. Divine attributes are in their very nature 
essentially one and indivisible ; and thus, where they exist at 
all, they must exist wholly. Hence, if the Lord Jesus Christ 
is God at all, he is wholly God. He cannot, therefore, have a 
divine nature separate or distinct from the divinity of the father. 
For it is ridiculous to think he can have an omnipotence in any 
possible degree distinct from that of the father. So of omni- 
presence and all the other divine attributes. For if the Lord 
possesses any power, of any kind, or of a degree ever so 
minute — to say nothing of all power — which the father does 
not, then the father is not om??ipotent. Yet if the Lord does 
not possess a power in some respects different from that of the 
father, there cannot be any distinction between them in respect 
to this attribute : for if their power is in no respect different, it 
is absolutely the same. Again, if omnipresence is attributed to 
the Lord, he is every where. But if he is every where, how 
can you conceive of the father's being where he is not ? And 
if the father cannot be where he is not, how can the father be 
in any possible degree separate or individually distinct from the 
Lord ? But if he is not separate or individually distinct from 
him, then they are one and the same being. The omnipotence, 
omniscience, and omnipresence of the father are those of the 
Lord, and thus the divinity of the father is the divinity of the 
Lord. Consequently, as the Lord's humanity is the bodily 
manifestation of his divinity, it is the bodily manifestation of 
the divinity of the father ; and thus the Lord and the father are 
absolutely one and the same divine being. Of course, Jesus 
Christ and the father are not two. 

In the second place, Jesus Christ and the father are one. 
The unity of the Lord and the father was negatively establish- 
ed, under the foregoing head, principally on rational grounds ; 
we purpose now to establish it affirmatively by scriptural quo- 
tations. 



JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 35 

When we say that Jesus Christ and the father are one, we 
mean that they are one as the soul and body are one. Now it 
appears to us that such a union between the Lord and the 
father could not possibly be more clearly set forth than it is in 
our text. 

We are aware that the words of our text, having been uttered 
by a divine being, must have a recondite as well as an apparent 
sense ; and that the unity of the Lord and the father is much 
more incontrovertibly seen by the light of their spiritual sense, 
than by any proof which the mere natural sense can furnish : 
for, in attaining to a spiritual perception of the Lord's words, 
we ourselves must pass through a process in some sort resem- 
bling that by which his unition with the father was effected ; 
and thus, feeling in ourselves something resembling this union, 
we can best understand what it is. But as theologians of the 
present day, in deducing doctrines from the Sacred Scriptures, 
regard their natural or apparent sense alone — as they suppose 
that the Lord spoke from natural thought and affection, and 
have no idea that his aim was to embody in natural images 
divine and essential truths, but imagine that he inculcated mere 
dogmatic truths — we will, for the sake of confuting their false 
notions even on their own premises, reason from these words 
taken in their apparent sense merely. 

It would seem, then, that Philip, having heard the Lord often 
speak of the father, and pray to him — having witnessed, per- 
haps, the opening of the heavens at his baptism, and heard the 
audible voice, as it were of the father, in heaven, proclaiming 
him his beloved son — was deeply impressed with the idea that 
the father and the son were separate and distinct persons. 
And when the Lord intimated that they from that time knew 
and had seen the father, Philip — conscious that he had seen no 
divine person other than the Lord, and thus being unable to 
conceive how he could have seen the father, as he was not yet 
aware of the intimate connection between the Lord himself and 
the father — intreats of him, " Lord, show us the father, and it 
sufficeth us." Now let us suppose that the doctrines at this 
day prevalent with respect to the distinct individuality of the 



36 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER 0ffE< 

father and the son are true. If so, then the Lord could have 
inculcated no other : for he is " the truth," and therefore 
nothing but truth can proceed from him. Let us suppose, too, 
that he spake for the purpose of uttering dogmatic truths, which 
must be the case if his words are to be understood only in their 
apparent sense. Here, then, the point of theology which we 
are discussing was brought distinctly into view. Philip y 
imagining, as the Christian of the present time does, and as 
does the mere natural man of every age, that the Lord and the 
father are distinct beings, wants to see the father. The Lord 
he had seen, and wanted no further evidence of his existence. 
To have seen the father, therefore, would have answered his 
doubts, and satisfied his desires. He very naturally, therefore, 
asks to see the father. On the supposition, then, that the Lord 
was teaching truths dogmatically, would he not have satisfied 
his inquiry in the precise way in which He, who always knows 
what is in man, must have known that Philip wished for in- 
formation ? And on the supposition that he and the father are 
actually distinct, would he not have proceeded to explain to 
Philip the distinction between himself and the father ? Would 
he not have pourtrayed the father's character, described his 
person, spoken of his distinct offices, or in some way have in- 
timated that he was a distinct individuality ? But does he do 
this ? No : so far was he from even hinting at a distinction — 
so far was he from implying that he as the son was a person 
separate and distinct from the father, he even proceeds to say 
that he is the very father himself: " Have /been so long time 
with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that 
hath seen me hath seen the father." 

Having so often assured them that he of himself could do 
nothing — that he spake not of himself, and that he had not a 
thought or a will of his own ; knowing that they had heard 
him speak " as never man spake," and had seen him do works 
which none but a divine being could do ; and hence supposing 
that they could not but have been sensible that the Divinity was 
in him, and hence that he himself was divine ; having, in short, 
expressly told them, as he did, on another occasion, (John, x. 



JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 37 

30,) that he and the father are one ; there is in the apparen 
sense of his words an expression of surprise at the request ot 
Philip. Show us the father! Can you behold the essential 
divine principle and live ? No man hath seen God at any- 
time ; the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the 
father, he hath brought him forth to view. As if he had said. 
Do not I, begotten of him as you know, manifest him in the 
only way in which he can be manifested to finite apprehension ? 
How are the affections and thoughts of your invisible soul 
manifested to your fellow-men ? How can they be manifested 
but by your body ? How then can you expect to see the divine 
affections and thoughts of your heavenly father, except by his 
body ? Now, being intimately united to him by the peculiarity 
of my birth, and thus having him within me as my soul or in- 
most principle of life, speaking as he dictates, and doing as he 
doth ; having nothing which I do not derive from him, my every 
feeling, thought and action being his in and by me; I am the 
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his substance 
am, in a word, his body ; and thus am a lower manifestatior 
of him who would otherwise be unapproachable and incompre 
hensible to you. Being, therefore, so thoroughly identified 
with him, am not I and the father one — as much so as a soul 
and body ? and do I not, therefore, show him to you ? " How 
sayest thou, then, Show us the father? Believest thou not that 
I am in the father, and the father in me? the words that I 
speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the father that dwell- 
eth in me, he doth the works. Believe me, that I am in the 
father and the father in me." 

Now, my hearers, I appeal to you as men of common sense, 
whether, on the supposition that the Lord spoke in only a literal 
sense, language can be more explicit than this. Mark, he ex- 
pressly says, " I speak not of myself." He could not even 
speak without the indwelling father. How then could he be 
an individual distinct from him? 

It is of no moment to urge that, when the Lord Jesus said he 
did not speak of himself, he meant to intimate that he was a 
subordinate being ; for this is true of all creatures. His hearers 

5 



38 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE* 

did not in this sense speak of themselves, and they knew it* 
Hence it was hardly necessary for him to utter a truth so ob- 
vious. It could not then have been with the view of signifying 
that he was a mere man, as the Unitarians suppose, that he 
spake these words. For had he been a mere man, and the 
people had supposed him to be such, he need not have said any 
thing about it. But if, on the other hand, the people supposed 
him to be divine, and he perceived that they did so, when he 
knew he was not, he certainly should have adopted a more ex- 
plicit mode of undeceiving them than he did, when he pro- 
ceeded not only to say, " the father is in me," but also, " I 
am in the father." For he might have said the father was in 
him, if he were only a divinely commissioned agent, but he 
could not have said that he was in the father unless he had 
been himself divine. For no one can be in the Infinite, the 
Eternal, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, but he who is him- 
self possessed of infinity, eternity, omnipotence, and omni- 
science. When, therefore, the Lord says, " I speak not of 
myself," he indicates his identity with the father, and not his 
subordination to him. So that this clause harmonizes perfectly 
with that in which he says, " I am in the father :" for it im- 
plies that he himself is very God — since, as we have said, to 
be in the father, who is infinite, he must be himself infinite ; 
and if he is infinite, he is God. And if he is God at all, he 
must be the only God ; for if he is not the only God, and yet 
is God at all, then there are more gods than one — which is im- 
possible and absurd. 

We say, then, confidently, that Jesus Christ and the father 
are one. And, in doing so, we only echo the Lord's own words 
when he says, (John, v. 30,) " I and my father are one." Here 
you see a direct and explicit assertion, by the Lord himself, of 
the point which we are maintaining. Observe, too, that the 
Lord says he and the father are one — completely subverting 
the notion that the humanity has for its proximate divine prin- 
ciple a son or second person in the trinity. 

We again, then, appeal to all men of common sense and 
rational Christians, whether — even on the grounds of argument 



JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 39 

taken by those who support a contrary doctrine — we are not 
justified in concluding, from these express declarations of the 
Lord, that Jesus Christ and the father are one. 

Here we might leave our case as entirely made out ; but, as 
this is a most important point, we will confirm it by a few more 
passages from the Word. 

Jesus says, in our text, that they who saw him saw the father; 
and he could say this in truth, because Jehovah himself had 
declared, (by Isaiah, ix. 6,) that the child which was to be born 
should be called " the everlasting father" Isaiah says, (xl. 3,) 
" The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye 
the way of Jehovah ; make straight in the desert a highway 
for our God." But John said, (i. 23,) "I am the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." 
And it is well known that John made straight the way of Jesus 
Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ is one with Jehovah. In Isai- 
ah, xliii. 11, are these words, "lam Jehovah, and besides 
me there is no saviour" — Hosea, xiii. 4, <; I am Jehovah thy 
God, thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no saviour 
besides me." But it was the express injunction of the angel of 
the Lord to Joseph, in respect to the son born of Mary, " thou 
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from 
their sins." If, then, there is no saviour besides Jehovah, and 
Jesus Christ is saviour, Jesus Christ is Jehovah. — Again, in 
Isaiah, xlix. 26, and xl. 16, Jehovah is called the " redeemer ;" 
and by this name too he is identified with the Lord Jesus, who is 
confessedly the redeemer of the world. We have also, in Paul's 
Epistle to the Hebrews, xiii. 8, this remarkable passage, " Jesus 
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." From 
which, compared with John, iv. 42, " This is Christ, the sa- 
viour of the world," it follows, that, if Jesus Christ is the same 
yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and in John's time, or at any 
time, was saviour, he must have been saviour at all times ; and 
consequently was so when Jehovah said, by Isaiah, " besides 
me there is no saviour." Wherefore this, too, shows that Jesus 
and Jehovah are one and the same being. The Lord himself 
declares, il I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the 



40 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 

End, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Al- 
mighty" — " I am the First and the Last." But how could he 
be the First, if he were a son begotten from eternity ? In this 
case there would have been a divine principle eternally before 
him, and therefore he could not be in a divine sense the First. 
To be the First, therefore, he must be the father himself. And 
this the more especially, as he is " the Almighty;" for if he is 
not the very father, then there are two almighties — which is 
absurd. Hence, when Jesus Christ declares that he is the First 
and the Last, he only uses another form of saying that he and 
the father are one. 

It is needless to multiply quotations on this head, had we 
time : for were we to quote all that would go, either directly or 
indirectly, to prove this point, we should be obliged to read the 
whole Bible. 

Still we are aware, that, notwithstanding this overwhelming 
evidence from the Word, many will continue to cling to ap- 
pearances of truth which seem to inculcate a different doctrine. 
And if they are resolved to adhere to the tenets, true or false, 
in which they may happen to have been educated, they may do 
so easily : they will find enough in the mere letter of the Word, 
which will give plausible colouring to their views ; because any 
doctrine, however false or heretical, may be confirmed by the 
apparent sense of Scripture. But let all such beware how 
they ground their doctrines upon constructions of Scripture 
when those doctrines are at variance with the Lord's express 
declarations. When the Lord says the father is in him, and 
that he is himself the father, let them beware how they set about 
making the father a being out of him, so as to be a person 
separate and distinct from him. " Let them kiss the son, lest 
he be angry, and they perish from the way when his wrath is 
kindled but a little." And while they are confirming their 
views by the appearances of truth in the mere letter of the 
Word, let them take good heed to the apostle Paul, when he 
says, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." 



SERMON II. 



JOHN, XV. 26. 



« When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the 
father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the father, he 
• shall testify of me." 

These are the words of the Lord Jesus to his disciples. 
They form a link in that chain of comforting and sustaining 
assurances which he gave them in view of his departure from 
this world, when they were to be left scattered like sheep while 
their shepherd was smitten. 

This text will lead us to consider, first, the true nature of the 
spirit which testifies of Jesus ; and, next, to explain some diffi- 
cult points of our theology, by throwing upon them its light. 
The first of these topics will be the theme of our present dis- 
course, the second that of our next. 

Let us, then, remark here that the spirit which testifies of 
Jesus is "the spirit of truth which proceeds from the father ." 
A father is one who begets, or has begotten, children ; and who 
sustains them in existence. Hence, in the abstract, the term 
lather denotes a begetting and sustaining principle. Conse- 
quently, the term father as applied to the Deity, means a divine 
begetting and sustaining principle in God. And what this is, 
will appear plainly to any spiritually minded person who duly 
considers the apostolic declaration that " God is love." The 
father, or all begetting and all sustaining principle in God, is, 
then, divine love. Therefore, "the spirit of truth which pro- 
ceeds from the father," is the spirit of truth which proceeds 
from divine love. And what this is, is clearly indicated by that 

5* 



42 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT 

other apostolic declaration that " God is light" Hence, " the 
spirit of truth which proceeds from the father," is the sphere 
of divine light which flows from divine love. 

It is the same thing to say the spirit of truth which proceeds 
from Jesus ; for he expressly says, " I and my father are one :" 
and " he that seeth me, seeth the father." For Jesus Christ, when 
he was glorified with the glory which he had with the father 
before the world was, became the divine good of the divine love 
even as to his very body. This was the reason that, on the 
mount of transfiguration, his face did shine as the sun ; because 
the activities of the divine love are the sun of heaven, and the 
divine love, being within Jesus Christ as his soul, shined forth 
through his face, as a man's face corresponds to and manifests 
the interiors of his mind. Thus " the spirit of truth which 
proceeds from the father," is the sphere of divine light which 
flows from the divine love in Jesus Christ, which is a sphere of 
life enlightening the mind ; because " in him was life, and the 
life was the light of men." (John, i. 4.) Hence, the Lord says, 
in our text, the comforter which is the spirit of truth, u whom 
/will send unto you from the father." For when Jesus was 
so glorified that he and the father were one, and those that saw 
him saw the father, he was divine good in form ; and as the form 
of good is truth, therefore he, as the form of divine good, was 
divine truth, that is, truth itself. And hence, his spirit, that is 
his breath or proceeding influence, must have been the spirit of 
of truth, or a sphere of light and life. 

We reason, then, that the spirit spoken of in our text, and 
which is therein said to testify of Jesus, is truth itself in its 
sphere or its activity. It is thus the fruit of truth, by which 
truth, or He who is " the truth," may be known. For the law 
is, u By their fruits ye shall know them." Thus the spirit in 
question is truth proceeding from the Lord Jesus Christ, as the 
sphere of his life, and so expressing his quality. And as it is 
the sphere of his life, it is the activity of his love, which is the 
divine love, and is the father in him. Consequently, the spirit 
of truth, spoken of in our text, being the activity of divine 
love in Jesus Christ, is the sphere of truth proceeding from the 



THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 43 

father in him; which activity, as it is the fruit of his life, is of 
course that by which his quality is to be known, and therefore 
is that which testifies of him. 

We are aware that this view conflicts with the commonly 
received opinion, that the spirit is not a mere principle of truth, 
but a third person co-equal with two other persons in the god- 
head. But that the spirit is nothing more than truth proceed- 
ing from the Lord Jesus as a sphere of his life, and so bearing 
witness of him, is evident from what John says in his First 
Epistle, v. 6, " This is he that came by water and blood, even 
Jesus Christ : not by water only, but by water and blood. 
And it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the spirit is 
truth." 

To understand the phraseology of the apostle here, we shall 
have to regard his words in spiritual light. We must attach 
to his words spiritual ideas ; or we must give to his natural 
language a spiritual interpretation. Because the apostolical 
principle of exegesis was, to " compare spiritual things with 
spiritual ;" and not to rest in the mere " letter which killeth." 
By water, therefore, in this passage from the Epistle of John, 
we are not to understand mere material water, but spiritual 
water, which is truth ; for washing with truth cleanses the spirit 
as washing with water cleanses the body. The Lord says, 
"now are ye clean through the words which I have spoken 
unto you." And Paul speaks of Christ having cleansed his 
church " by the washing of water with the Word." 

And by blood, also, is not to be understood material blood, 
but spiritual blood, that is, truth of another and a higher degree; 
for the saints are said, in the Revelations, to have "washed 
their robes, and made them white, in the blood of the Lamb;" 
which passage evidently indicates some sort of purification 
which the spirits of just men made perfect have undergone by 
means of truth from the Lord Jesus, who is expressly called 
"the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world." 

The difference between truth as water and truth as blood is, 
that in the latter case, truth has more of a vital quality. For 
it is said in Genesis, " the blood is the life." Hence, in the pas- 



44 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT 

sage of John's Epistle before us, water means truth in a clear 
but cold degree, and blood means truth in a warm and vital 
degree. Water means truth of the intellect merely, and blood 
truth of the will and the life also. In short, water means 
natural truth, and blood means spiritual truth. Natural truth 
is external truth — truth of the body, that is, truth as mere 
knowledge and intelligence; but spiritual truth is internal 
truth, truth of the spirit, that is, truth of life, or truth united to 
good, which is intellectual truth reduced to practice. 

Thus we can see that Jesus Christ's coming by blood as 
well as by water, or his not coming " by water alone, but by 
water and blood," means that he came not as a principle of 
truth alone, but as a principle of truth united with good. He 
was in fact God with us, saving us from our sins. Hence he 
was the divine principle of good operating by truth in the glori- 
fication of human nature, so as to provide for all human 
redemption and salvation. Thus there was in him the essential 
principle of good, which was divine love in its activity, forming 
his inmost soul; and there was in him the truth of this good, 
which is the form of this good, hence the form of the divine 
love ; and there was in him, or proceeding from him, the sphere 
of this divine love or this essential principle of good, operat- 
ing by the truth, which is the form of it, in the salvation of 
men. Hence there were in him these three, good, truth, and 
the spirit of truth. Therefore John immediately adds, "For 
there are three that bear record in heaven, the father, the word, 
and the holy ghost, and these three are one ; and there are three 
that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the 
blood ; and these three agree, or correspond, with that one.' 7 
(v. 7, 8.) 

By heaven, here, the apostle meant the Lord's internal man 
— that man which appeared to the angels, and to his disciples 
when he was transfigured before them ; and by earth, he meant 
the Lord's external man — that man which appeared to men 
here on earth. And by his saying there are three that bear 
record in heaven, he meant that the Lord's internal man was 
constituted by divine love, divine wisdom, and the divine sphere 



THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 45 

of use — meaning the divine love by the father, the divine 
wisdom by the word, and the divine sphere by the holy ghost. 
These three are the eternal and infinite evidences that there is 
a God. For, if there were not a God, there could not be either 
love, wisdom, or use. And, conversely, the fact that there is 
either love, wisdom, or use, is irrefragable proof of a divine 
existence. And the apostle says these three are one, because 
they are all three indispensable principles of unity, inasmuch 
as they are all three indispensable to any one thing, — as an 
essence, a form, and an action, — and because neither of these 
divine principles could exist or be any thing without the others, 
any more than an essence could exist or be any thing without 
a form and an activity. And, as qualities, or properties, or 
principles, cannot exist unless they have a subject in which 
they inhere, therefore the apostle says these three divine quali- 
ties, properties, or principles are one because they inhere in and 
constitute the one divine person Jesus Christ. For the faith of 
the apostles in respect to the Lord Jesus must have been one 
and the same ; and Paul says that in Christ Jesus dwells all 
the fullness of the godaead bodily ; therefore John must have 
held that all the divine qualities, properties, or principles, were 
dwelling in Jesus Chris: as one divine embodyment or person. 
The three divine principles of love, wisdom and use were more- 
over one in Jesus Chris:, because in him there was no such 
thing as goodness abstract from truth, or truth abstract from 
goodness, or conduct abstract from either truth or goodness. 
His words were spirit and life. Every thing he said was but 
an outer form or manifestation of wisdom and of love. Wisdom 
was the spirit, and love the life, of his every utterance. And 
there was no word of his without the divine intelligence of a 
divine wisdom, and without the vital power of a divine love. 
Into his speech divine love and divine wisdom flowed simulta- 
neously, imparting to it all their own divine heat and light, and 
producing such a unity of themselves with it as to make Jesus 
Christ, in respect to it, as he is emphatically called, the Holy 
One of God — so that he spake " as never man spake," and 
with an " authority" adequate to the expulsion of all evil and 



46 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT 

false spirits, and with a power adequate to the impartment of all 
degrees of spiritual and eternal life. The same was true of his 
acts. They were the works of the father, or the divine love, in 
him. " I speak not of myself, the father that is in me, he doeth 
the works." " My father worketh hitherto, and I work." " I 
came not to do my own will, but the will of the father that sent 
me." Thus, there was no act of his that was abstract from 
the divine love, or the divine wisdom within him. So that he 
not only spake as never man spake, but he did works which he 
could not have done unless God had been with him. Thus 
divine love, and divine wisdom, (for Paul expressly calls him 
the "Wisdom of God,") and the energy of divine use or opera- 
tion, (for Paul as expressly calls him the " Power of God,") 
made one in Jesus Christ — constituting him (as John also ex- 
pressly calls him) the Holy One — having the divine love so 
fully in him as to be the anointed of the father, "full of grace 
and truth;" and having the divine wisdom so fully'in him as to 
have the spirit given unto him " without measure;" and having 
these divine principles so fully ultimated in his conduct as to be 
the word, which was in the beginning with God and was God, 
" made flesh," in him, and constituting him " God with us." 
Wherefore, there were these three, divine love, divine wisdom, 
and divine use, in him, that is constituting his internal man, 
and testifying, or for ever bearing record, in that man, that he 
is the one God. And this is what John means when he says, 
in that passage of his Epistle, which we are considering, 
" There are three that bear record in heaven." 

By the three that bear witness on earth, the apostle John meant 
so many corresponding principles in the Lord's external man or 
the humanity which he assumed and glorified on earth ; that is to 
say, the good of the Lord's precepts, the truth of his doctrines, 
and the savour of good and truth which was every where per- 
ceptible in his conduct. The good of the Lord's precepts is the 
spirit of the church on earth, the truth of his doctrines is the 
water whereby that church is cleansed, and his blood is the truth 
and good of his doctrines brought into the rational voluntary con- 
duct of his disciples, and so giving them spiritual and eternal life. 



THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 47 

And these three in earth — that is, the spirit, the water, and the 
blood — are said to agree with the three in heaven — namely, 
the father, the word, and the holy ghost — because the Lord's 
external man fully corresponded to his internal man, so that 
his external man was so completely transfused with his indwell- 
ing divinity as to become itself divine. His ivill, his doctrines, 
and his works, were those of the father that sent him. For 
Jesus expressly says, " I came not to do mine own will, but the 
will of him that sent me." (John, vi. 3 — 8.) — " My doctrine is 
not mine, but his that sent me." (John, vii. 16.) — " My father 
worketh hitherto, and I work" — " the son can do nothing of 
himself, but what he seeth the father do : for what things 
soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise." (John, v. 
17, 19.) Thus the Lord's will, doctrine, and works were 
those of the father that sent him ; that is, they were the will, 
the doctrine, and the works of the divine love, and not of any 
merely human love. They were the will, the doctrine, and 
the works of the divine love, the divine wisdom, and the divine 
sphere of use. 

Thus the will, the doctrine, and the works which constituted 
the Lord's external man, proceeded from, and made one with, 
the three corresponding divine principles which constituted this 
internal man. And thus it is that the spirit, the water, and the 
blood on earth, agree with the father, the word, and the holy 
£rhost in heaven. 

o 

And as the father, the word, and the holy ghost, in the one 
person Jesus Christ, bear record to angels that he alone is 
God in heaven ; so the spirit, the water, and the blood, in the 
same one person Jesus Christ, bear witness to men that he 
alone is God on earth. He has "all power in heaven and on 
earth." He is " Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, 
the First and the Last, who was, who is, and who is to come, 
the Almighty" — "the same yesterday, to-day and for ever" — 
" God our Saviour" — "God over all, blessed for ever" — "the 
only true God and eternal life." 

And the evidence of all this was, that from him, when on 
earth, proceeded the spirit of truth — the life, the practical 



48 TRUF. NATURE OF THE SPIRIT 

operation of truth. The evidence of all this was, that he did 
"the works of God" — the works of truth itself — the works of 
divine love and essential goodness as formed by, and operative 
in, divine truth. " The works that I do," says he, (John, v. 37,) 
"bear witness of me, that the father hath sent me." And, in 
showing that the son of man had power on earth to forgive sins, 
— a power belonging to God only, — he said to the man sick of 
the palsy, " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee" 
— "arise, take up thy bed and go unto thy house." Thus the 
Lord Jesus gave the evidence of his divinity when he was on 
earth by doing the works of God; that is, by manifesting the 
spirit of truth from a principle of divine love within him. For the 
miracles which he wrought, were types of those subjugations 
of the principles and powers of evil, and of those purifications, 
reformations, and regenerations of universal human nature, 
which a principle of divine love alone could effect. And these 
miracles, or mighty works, the divine love in him did by means 
of the divine wisdom, or by means of truth ; they were, in fact, 
the breath or spirit of truth glorifying human nature in him- 
self, and from himself in universal humanity out of himself. 
Hence the works he did were the spirit of truth operating in 
him man's salvation, and so bearing witness that He was God 
then ; and the same spirit, ever proceeding from him as a 
divinely glorified humanity, so as perpetually to redeem and 
save from sin all who go to him in faith, love, and practice, is 
constantly testifying that He is God now. 

We conclude, then, that the spirit is truth, proceeding as a 
vital principle from the Lord Jesus and testifying, by the divine 
love, wisdom, and power conspicuous in his life, that he is God. 
And this is what John means when he says, "It is the spirit 
that beareth witness, because the spirit is truth" 

Of course, the spirit cannot be a person distinct and separate 
from Jesus, because truth is not a person distinct and separate 
from him. Truth is a principle in Jesus, so that he could say 
expressly I am " the truth" And the spirit or life of truth 
must proceed from him, because he expressly says I am " the 



THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 49 

life" Thus the spirit of truth proceeding from him, must be a 
principle of life proceeding from him. 

And this is further manifest from that property of the spirit 
which Jesus himself attributes to it, when he says, "the spirit 
of truth shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall 
hear, that shall he speak — He shall glorify me : for he shall 
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you/' (John, xvi. 13, 
14.) For this could not be said of a person proceeding from 
the father and the son as two other persons with whom he was 
co-equal in power and glory; because, in this case, he must 
have spoken of himself at the same time that he spoke of them, 
and he must have glorified himself at the same time that he 
glorified them, otherwise he could not have been co-equal with 
them. But the Lord Jesus expressly says, that " he shall not 
speak of himself," and " he shall glorify me;" which could not 
be done except by something proceeding from Jesus, as a part 
or extension of himself, so as to express his quality, as light or 
heat, proceeding from the sun, expresses the sun's quality. And 
light or heat proceeding from the sun, is a principle of the sun ; 
and not a person distinct or separate from it. So the spirit of 
truth proceeding from Jesus, is a principle of his nature ; and 
not a person distinct or separate from him. 

And that the spirit of truth is a principle proceeding from 
Jesus, is not contradicted by our text, which says that it pro- 
ceeds from the father, — "even the spirit of truth, which pro- 
ceedeth from the father," — because Jesus, in the very next 
verse to those just quoted, (xvi. 15,) says, " All things that the 
father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of 
mine and shall show it unto you." And he elsewhere says, 
11 1 and the father are one" — " I am in the father, and the 
father in me" — " He that seeth me seeth the father." So that 
the spirit, in proceeding from the father, proceeds in fact from 
Jesus — just as the light or heat which proceeds from the f re 
of the sun, does in fact proceed from its flame : for there is 
precisely the same relation between Jesus and his father that 
there is between flame and its fire, because flame is the bright- 
ness of fire's glory and the express image of its substance, and 

6 



50 TRUE NATURE OP THE SPIRIT 

this Paul declares to be the very relation of Jesus Christ to God. 
And thus it is that Jesus sends the comforter, the spirit of 
truth, unto his disciples from the father — namely, as the flame 
of the sun sends light and heat, with all their enlightening, vivi- 
fying, fructifying, and so materially comforting influences, from 
the fire of the sun to the multifarious objects of its production 
and sustentation upon earth. And the spirit of truth testifies 
of Jesus just as the heat of light, that is, the heat which light 
bears in its bosom, testifies of the sun's flaming properties. 
The light alone, as in winter, does not testify any of the 
properties of either the sun's flame or its fire. For in win- 
ter all vegetation is dead. It is only when the light is united 
with heat, so as to convey and impart heat as the spirit of it, 
that it can make any testification whatever of what the sun is 
either in its fire or its flame. It is only summer light that 
causes the barren earth to bud, and blossom, and yield fruit. 
And when the light with heat in it, or rather when the heat of 
light, that is, the life or spirit of light shows what flame is, 
* — takes of the flame and shows it unto the objects of the 
natural world, — it shows at the same time the fire unto them ; 
for the flame is but the form and activity of the fire as its vital 
essence, so that all things of the fire belong to Ihe flame, just 
as all things of the essence belong to its active form. And 
hence, whatever proceeds from the flame does at the same time 
proceed from the fire in the flame ; and, in expressing the 
quality of the one, does equally express the quality of the other. 
And thus the spirit of truth, in proceeding from Jesus, does at 
the same time proceed from the father in him ; and, in express- 
ing the quality of Jesus, does also and equally express the 
father's quality. 

The spirit of truth, then, is not a person, because it testifies, 
not of itself, but of Him who sends it. It testifies of Jesus, that 
he is God, and God alone — God in essence, God in form, and 
God in proceeding energy. In other words, it testifies that 
Jesus is God in love, God in wisdom, and God in redeeming 
and saving power. Therefore, it testifies, not that itself is a 
person separate from Jesus, nor that Jesus is a person separate 



THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 51 

from the father ; but it takes of what belongs to Jesus and 
shows it unto his disciples. It takes of the love, and the wis- 
dom, and the life of Jesus and shows them unto those who take 
up their cross daily and follow him in the regeneration. It 
takes thus of the divine qualities of Jesus and shows them unto 
those who truly learn of him in keeping his commandments. 
It expresses only his quality, as being in the father and having 
the father in him ; so that they who see him, may in him see 
the father. And it shows itself to be nothing but his breath — 
nothing but his divine e/fluence and his human influence, 
breathing into men's nostrils the breath of lives. Thus it 
shows most clearly that the spirit of truth is a principle, 
and not a person, proceeding from Jesus. 

The conclusion to which we have thus come, is clear, not 
only from the apostolic testimony which has been advanced, 
but likewise from the Lord's own and infinitely more conclusive 
testimony, when, in being about to leave his disciples, he told 
them that he would send them the spirit of truth, the comforter, 
which spirit of truth — testifying of him, and taking of his and 
showing it unto them — was to abide with them for ever, so 
that they were to know him, and he was to dwell in them and 
be in them. For the disciples of the Lord never have known 
the holy spirit as a personal individuality distinct from Jesus 
Christ : neither could a divine individuality dwell and be in 
finite creatures. His disciples received the truth from the 
Lord's lips, and they continue to receive it from his Word, 
while his influences on their hearts open the eyes of their minds 
to see its divine contents. Jesus is the mediator between the 
essential divine principle and man ; and the Divine Being, in 
and through him, declares to those who believe in and obey 
him, the truth which is necessary for their regeneration — the 
truth which convicts them of sin, delivers them from evil, sup- 
ports them in temptation, and comforts them in affliction. And 
thus it is that the father — that is, the essential, invisible and 
incomprehensible divine essence — sends the comforter, which 
is the holy spirit, in the name, that is, in the quality, the 
character? the doctrine, the person, of Jesus Christ, who is that 



52 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT 

human nature, and consequent form, which the divine essence 
assumed and glorified upon earth. 

But, as this divine human nature and form makes one with 
the divine principle which is in it, as a soul and essence, hence 
the Lord Jesus says, " All things that the father hath are mine: 
therefore, said I, that he [the spirit of truth] shall take of mine, 
and shall show it unto you." (John, xvi. 8 — 15.) And as this 
divine human nature and form of Jehovah, acts of itself from 
the Divinity, as our bodies act from our souls, hence the Lord 
Jesus says, also, " As the father hath life in himself, so hath he 
given to the son to have life in himself." — " I lay down my life 
that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I 
lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I 
have power to take it again. This commandment have I re- 
ceived of my father." And thus, as Jesus had life in himself 
as the father or divine essence had life in himself, thus infinite- 
ly, eternally, and omnipotently, therefore he himself was, and 
is, as the apostle John expressly and very emphatically calls 
him, eternal life ; — " this is the true God, and eternal life /" — 
and as Paul expressly says that "Jesus Christ is the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and for ever," therefore, consequently, Jesus 
Christ had, and has, and ever will have, " all power, in heaven 
and on earth," to impart life to all who will " come unto him 
that they may have life." Hence he can impart to all, who 
will so come unto him in faith and practice as to open their 
hearts for its reception, the life of truth, that is, the spirit of 
truth ; which, when it comes unto men, delivers them from 
their evil — hence, brings them off" conquerors in the spiritual 
combats which they have to undergo in consequence of their 
evils — thus sustains them in temptation, and comforts them in 
those salutary afflictions which the outbreakings of their inbred 
corruptions bring upon them for their eternal glory. And 
thus it is that Jesus sends unto his disciples the spirit of truth, 
as a comforter, from a principle of love in him, which imparts 
a corresponding principle of love to them, that, in its pervading* 
controlling, cleansing, and rectifying activities, develops in 
them the redeeming and saving spiritual and celestial properties 



THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 53 

of its divine source. So that the divine good of his love be- 
comes so correspondently active in them as to shine with its 
own brightness and thus be in its glory, and to impart to them 
its own image and likeness. And therefore the Lord says of 
the spirit of truth, which he was about to send unto his disci- 
ples from the father, " He shall glorify me : he shall receive of 
mine, and shall show it unto you;" which words import, that 
the divine truth or wisdom of the divine love, becoming active 
in those who receive that truth in obedience, faith, and love, so 
brings that love, or its goodness, out into manifest form and 
light, as not only to show what that goodness is in all its own 
intrinsic resplendency, but also to impart its qualities to those 
who keep its commandments — to those who do the truths that 
are its form and activity. And to such as thus experience the 
good of truth proceeding from the Lord, it is perfectly clear, 
that good and truth are absolutely one in him ; so that, when 
the truth comes unto them from him, it of course brings along 
with it his good ; and, consequently, that the sphere of truth 
from him, is at the same time and equally the sphere of good- 
ness. 

Thus, finally, it is the same whether Jesus or Jehovah sends 
the spirit of truth. In both cases it is truth proceeding from 
the Lord, enlightening, vivifying, supporting, and comforting 
his disciples, and, by imparting to them his own nature, testi 
fying to them concerning him. 

Such, then, is the true nature of the spirit. And, therefore, 
we say again, the spirit spoken of in our text, is not, as some 
suppose, a divine person, equal in power and glory, and co- 
existent with two other divine persons in the godhead ; but it is 
a divine sphere, emanating from Jesus Christ, and containing 
and expressing his qualities, so as to bear witness of these 
qualities in all who, by its influence, receive into themselves 
their image and likeness. 

In concluding this discourse, we will remark, what ought 
never to be lost sight of, that it is not truth merely which 
testifies of Jesus to his disciples, but it is the spirit of truth. 
It is not truth alone, but it is the life of truth, which bears any 

6* 



54 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT 

adequate testification of who and what Jesus Christ is. Hence, 
the old christian church does not discern the sole divinity of 
Jesus Christ; because that church is principled in faith alone, 
and the mere faith of truth is not the spirit of truth. Hence, 
there is not, in the old christian church, any thing which can 
testify to it of Jesus. Though the christian church has faith 
to remove mountains, still that faith is nothing without charity, 
and has no power whatever to form in the soul an idea of Jesus 
Christ's true character. Charity is the essence of faith, so 
that there is no true faith without genuine charity ; and the 
life of charity, operating by a true faith, is that spirit of truth 
which alone testifies of Jesus to the individual soul and the col- 
lective church : for charity is itself the Lord's image and like- 
ness in the soul. 

We may, then, learn from our text why men in their natural 
state — why men who are actuated by selfish loves and worldly 
passions — cannot comprehend the grand truth that Jesus Christ 
is God, and God alone. It is because this truth can be seen 
only in the light which the spirit of truth sheds — thus in 
spiritual light : and this shines only in spiritual men. Hence 
it is because this truth is eminently spiritual, and men in a 
mere natural state are as grossly carnal. This truth is em- 
phatically the mystery of God. And without godliness, that 
is, without God-like-ness, it can never be comprehended. 
" Without controversy," says Paul, "great is the mystery of 
godliness — God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, 
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the 
world, received up into glory." And no one knows the mys- 
teries, the deep things of God, unless the spirit of God be im- 
parted to him. No one can know these mysteries unless he 
have, as the apostles had, " the mind of Christ." Thus no 
one can understand this greatest of mysteries, the divinity of 
the Lord's humanity, except so far as the mind of Christ is in 
him by the spirit of truth proceeding from Jesus and testifying 
the qualities of Jesus Christ unto him. Before this is the case, 
or while man is in a natural state, he sees Jesus Christ, as John 
expresses it, " as through a glass, darkly," And it is only 



THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 55 

when Christ so comes unto us as to make us like him, that we 
can see him as he is. And Christ comes to us when he sends 
the spirit of his truth unto us in our life of his commandments. 
For the Lord says, " he that hath my commandments, and 
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me 
shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will 
manifest myself to him." 

Thus it is that no one can believe that Jesus Christ is God, 
and acknowledge him alone as such, while he is a natural 
man, or until he is made spiritual, by the spirit of truth sent 
unto him from the father in Jesus Christ, in the actual forma- 
tion of Jesus Christ in him as " a new creature." And hence 
Paul expressly says, " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord 
but by the holy ghost." For it is only when a man has the 
spirit of truth, proceeding from Jesus Christ and regenerating 
him into the image and likeness of the divine love, that he can 
see Jesus in himself as the divine flame and form of that love. 
And it is the light of the flame of this love, shed from the hu- 
man heart into the human understanding, which alone displays 
Jesus in his true character — throwing around the idea of him 
in the mind that light which alone shows what he truly is, as 
the Form of God, the Wisdom and Power of God, the Express 
Image of God's substance, and thus as God himself made 
manifest. Hence Jesus says, " No man cometh unto me ex- 
cept the father which sent me, draw him." 

Thus it is the life or practice of truth, flowing from the love 
of truth, and so proceeding from good, which alone bears true 
testimony of Jesus : and thus that which alone truly testifies of 
Jesus, is " the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the father" 

And my dear brethren, if this was ever true in the Lord's 
first and natural advent, it is more especially true now in this 
his second and spiritual coming. Wherefore, it is all in vain 
that we seek to proselyte men to our faith by merely preaching 
the truth to them. This will never testify to them of Jesus. 
It will never show them Jesus in the spirit of his Word, 
wherein his second coming most conspicuously is. It will 
never show to men around us that the divine love, wisdom, and 



56 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT, &C, 

energy are in the spiritual sense of the Word. It is not 
enough merely to teach men who the Lord is, we must also 
lead them to him. The mere verbal uttering of the truths of 
the Word never presents the divine quality of those truths to 
the apprehensions of any. To make these truths known, and 
to make men receive them as such, so as by them to bring the 
Lord present to the souls of men in the good of them, we our- 
selves must live them. Then the sphere of those truths goes 
forth from us ; and, as the spirit of those truths, does indeed 
testify to men around us that Jesus Christ is in them ; and, by 
leading them to the life of them, does verily bring him present 
in a new and second advent to their souls. 

Such is the doctrine of our text as to the true nature of the 
spirit which testifies of Jesus, and such is the practical conclu- 
sion we deduce from that doctrine in its application to us as 
members of the Lord's new church. 

May the Lord, in his mercy, bless what is here dispensed in 
his name ; and cause all to redound to his glory in the reforma- 
tion of our lives, and the eternal good of our souls ! 



SERMON III. 



JOHN, XIV. 28. 



" Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto 
you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto 
the father : for my father is greater than I." 

Jesus, in sundry places of his Word, speaks of his leaving 
his disciples and coming to them again ; of his going away, 
and sending the comforter, which is the spirit of truth, unto 
them ; and of this spirit of truth's testifying of him, and lead- 
ing his disciples into all truth — bringing all things to their 
remembrance which he had spoken to them when he was with 
them on earth. There must, then, be some important spiritual 
truth involved in this thing of the Lord's going away from his 
disciples and coming to them again, which it may be a matter 
of great spiritual moment to have explained. It involves the 
necessity, and would lead us to consider the nature and use, of 
a twofold advent of the Lord. To this subject the text before 
us has explicit allusion — " Ye have heard how I said unto you, 
I go aivay, and come again." Here the Lord sanctions, by 
repetition, a previous declaration of his departure after his first 
advent, and his prediction of a second advent. It may be well, 
then, in this discourse, to discuss and explain the nature and 
necessity of a second coming of the Lord, especially in respect 
to the regeneration of the individual man. 

But the Lord, in the text, makes a very singular and striking 
declaration, which needs, perhaps, more than any other parts 
of the Word, an explanation by us, because it seems to militate 



58 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 

against our fundamental article of faith, that Jesus Christ is 
God alone. It is the declaration of his inferiority to the father. 
He is assigning a reason why his disciples, instead of being 
grieved in the prospect of his leaving them, should rather 
rejoice in that prospect, because, in leaving them, he went to his 
father : and, in giving this reason, he says expressly, "for, my 
father is greater than I." Now the opponents of our faith in- 
stantly say, if the father is greater than Jesus, how can he and 
the father be one and the same person ; and therefore, how can 
Jesus Christ be, as you say he is, the one and the only God ? 
This is a specious objection, which ought to be answered ; and 
we design to discuss this topic also, in the present discourse — ? 
although we must necessarily touch on it rather incidently 
and briefly. 

In the last discourse we showed, at considerable length, the 
true nature of the spirit that testifies of Jesus. And that dis- 
course was introductory to this, because, in a true idea of 
the spirit, and of its proceeding from the father and the son, 
there is involved a correct idea of the relation of Jesus to the 
father, which, when it is clearly comprehended, enables the 
mind to discern, very satisfactorily, not only why it was ex- 
pedient for Jesus to leave his disciples and go to the father, or 
why he must needs go to the father before he could send the 
holy spirit unto them as a comforter and a leader into all truth, 
or why it was necessary for him to come unto them himself a 
second time ; but also in what sense it is that he is inferior to 
the father. And when the mind once gets an accurate, clear, and 
distinct idea of what the father is, and of what Jesus Christ is, 
and thus of the true relation of Jesus Christ to the father, then 
there will be no difficulty whatever in seeing that Jesus Christ's 
saying, in our text, that his father is greater than he, does not 
at all militate against the truth that he and the father are one, 
and that he himself is God alone. 

We will now proceed to throw the light of our last text, as it 
has been unfolded, upon the distinct subject of our present con- 
sideration. 

The first point to be illustrated is, why it was expedient for 



A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 59 

the Lord to go away and come again. This involves the con- 
sideration of the nature and necessity of the Lord's second 
advent. And the clear understanding of this, requires a dis- 
quisition upon the internal and the external revelation of truth. 

As man was originally created, he received truth by only an 
inner way. The Lord flowed into his soul with the love of 
good ; and from this there was the intuitive perception of all 
truth. There was then no written revelation ; for the Word was 
then written on the heart. But then, as now, life flowing from 
the Lord into man appeared to be in him as his own. Hence 
the good by which man was actuated, and the truth which he 
perceived, were both apparently his. This was the external 
appearance. While, however, man remained in his integrity, 
he had an inward perception that the good and the truth, which 
were his apparently, really flowed into him from the Lord. 
He inwardly perceived that he was but the recipient of life from 
the Lord, who alone has in himself life underived. And while 
he remained in the interior acknowledgment of this truth, his 
seeming to have, and his acting as if he had, life in himself, 
was not injurious to his spiritual state. The intelligence of 
this state is represented in the Word by the garden of Eden, 
and his appearing to live — that is, to will good and understand 
truth — from himself, while he inwardly acknowledged that he 
lived from the Lord, is signified by his eating of the tree of life 
which grew in the midst of the garden. This acknowledgment 
of the Lord kept the internal of his mind constantly open up 
to the Lord, so that life from the Lord could perpetually flow 
into his inmost with a perennial stream of divine revelation, 
that flowed, like a river, out of his Eden, or his celestial mind, 
to water its garden, or his spiritual mind, and parted into foun- 
tain heads of heavenly intelligence to all his mind's inferior 
regions. 

But from this state of integrity, man ultimately fell. And 
his fall consisted in his resting in the appearance that life flow- 
ing into him from the Lord was in him as his own. For thus 
he supposed himself to be a god knowing good and evil. 
That is, he imagined that his will of good and his understand- 



60 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 

ing of truth were really his own — which led him at length td 
love himself supremely, and hence to take pride in his own 
righteousness and his own intelligence. This was eating of 
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And thus ceasing 
to acknowledge the Lord in the internal of his mind, that 
internal was closed, so that revelation from the Lord could no 
longer flow in by the way of his love ; for his love being now 
self-love, truth flowing from the Lord through it, would not be 
divine or real truth, but only such appearances of truth as 
would favor man's loving and honoring of himself: and, conse- 
quently, he by degrees lost all intelligence of heavenly and 
divine things — which was represented by his being driven out 
of the garden of Eden ; and was at last filled with the most 
direful evils of life and falsities of doctrine, so as to have all 
spiritual life extinguished — which was represented by the world's 
being destroyed with a deluge. 

Then a radical change took place in the genius of man, and 
the economy of divine order in respect to him was entirely 
altered. The Lord could no longer reveal truth to him by an 
inner way, but had to make a verbal and written revelation to 
his senses. And this necessity has been entailed on human 
nature ever since. Thus, originally, truth was revealed from 
the Lord within, through the will, into the understanding. But 
now that man has acquired to himself a contrariety to divine 
goodness and truth — has become sunk in selfish, worldly, sen- 
sual and corporeal loves — it is manifest that truth can be no 
longer revealed to him in this inner way. For, when the divine 
love, — which would lead man to prefer others to himself, for it 
would lead him to love God above all things and his fellow-men 
for God's sake, — flows down by divine goodness into man's 
perverted form, it becomes self-love, which manifests itself in a 
will to self-gratification, and this in an understanding of all 
those false maxims which justify self-indulgence ; and thus 
man, from the impulses of this love, prefers himself to others, 
and makes others subservient to himself. In this state, man 
thinks the gratification of self-love good, and the maxims which 
favor self-love truth. He thus " calls evil good, and good 



A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 61 

evil, puts darkness for light, and light for darkness ; and puts 
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter," (Isa. v. 20.) And 
divine goodness and truth being thus altered in their nature as 
they flow into him, are not seen in their true light, and, of 
course, are not revealed to him. Hence, as man has now be- 
come evil and false in his nature, there is no possibility of 
revealing goodness and truth to him by an inner way. For 
the truth flowing into him, and appearing in him as his own, 
does not produce real good in him, but is perverted into a 
nature similar to his, and thus is changed into what is false and 
evil. The truth thus coming into man appears, indeed, to him 
to be true, because it favours his love ; but it is really false, be- 
cause his love is evil. 

We say the divine goodness and truth, flowing into man as 
a perverted form, are altered in their nature. But this is 
speaking according to appearance. What is divine is un- 
changeable, and hence cannot be altered in its essential quali- 
ties. But it may be altered in its effects, according as the 
forms into which it flows become less and less correspondent. 

Now that man's form or nature had, in process of time, be- 
come so perverted as not to receive and manifest the divine 
goodness and truth correspondent] y, is clearly proved, both by 
the Word and by daily experience. Thus the Word declares, 
(Ps. xiv. 2, 3,) " The Lord looked down from heaven upon the 
children of men, to see if there were any that did understand 
and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether 
become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one." And 
the daily experience of all proves that men are now born into 
the loves of self and the world, thus with a character which is 
contrary to the divine goodness. And hence, now, and ever 
since this became the condition of man, the divine truth, not 
finding in man a correspondent form, cannot be revealed to him 
by an inner way, so as to form the divine goodness in him, 
and present to his apprehension an idea of what the divine 
goodness is. 

Truth is the form and light of goodness. And while man is 
in a fallen state, the divine truth cannot pass into him without 

7 



62 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY Of 

having its nature changed, so as to prevent divine goodness 
being seen in its own light. Thus, in this fallen state of man* 
there is nothing to declare to him what the divine goodness is, 
and thus there is nothing to testify to him of Jesus, who is that 
goodness in an express image and likeness. The divine quali* 
ties flowing into him are perverted in him into an evil nature, 
and the more they flow into him, the more inveterately evil 
does that nature become. Hence, that man may be saved from 
evil, it is needful that the Lord should go away from him — it 
is needful that the divine qualities should not flow into man 
internally, but that his internal should be closed. For the 
divine truth thus coming to man, while he is in evil, is only his 
tormenter, by increasing his evil and of course the punishment 
of it. Hence the divine truth must needs go away from man, 
that is, must cease to enter into him by an internal way, and 
must come again in an external way, so as to alter his form, 
and, by a true form, externally or intellectually induced, re- 
produce a good quality in his will or love. In this way only 
can divine truth come to him as a comforter, for in this way 
only can his forms be so rectified as to fit him to receive the 
influx of the divine love and wisdom without torture to his 
spirit. This was a first and second advent of the Lord which 
was needed in man's decadency from pristine order. Another 
twofold advent is necessary in his restoration. 

Man, in his fall, like the earth in its diurnal revolution, has 
turned from the sun of righteousness so that its direct rays 
cannot reach him. The only way, therefore, in which he can 
now receive the light of heaven is by reflection. Hence the 
faith of truth in his understanding, must, as a moon, reflect the 
light of truth to his darkened will, so as to form a new will 
from an intellectual ground. Thus the truth must now flow 
into man by an outer way. It must be brought down to a 
plane which is below his internal, and be reflected from the 
lower powers of his mind. It must be brought to his senses — 
to his sight, hearing and touch. In the way it must enter, and: 
be stored in, his memory. From hence it must enter his un- 



A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 63 

derstanding ; and by means of right forms in his understanding 
renew his will. 

But, that man's will may be again opened to goodness, the 
Lord must again go away from him and once more come 
again. He must go away as mere truth, in science, knowledge 
and intellection, and come again as truth in practice, truth in 
life, thus as the spirit of truth. Then man's internal, that is, 
his love, will again be reduced to order, so as once more to 
receive the divine truth in a correspondent form. Then the 
divine truth can again come into him by an inner way. And 
the spirit of truth thus coming to him and transfusing him, will 
be to him a comforter, because it will then be in him a principle 
that removes his evils and conforms him to good, so that the 
divine truth coming into him inwardly, and descending from 
within out, is only the truth of good producing in him nothing 
but good. Before this, the divine truth flowing in by this way 
would have only increased his self-love, and multiplied and 
magnified its evils ; but now it increases his love to God and 
the neighbour, and increases indefinitely, and renders indefinitely 
more intense, its felicities. Now, therefore, the divine truth is 
in him a comforter — being sent unto him by the father, that is, 
flowing down from a principle of good in the inmost of his 
mind, because it is now the spirit or life of truth flowing from 
a love of truth for its own sake, and forming all the qualities of 
truth, which are the varied forms of true goodness, in the soul, 
so as to give to the soul a conscious perception of what true 
goodness is, and thus to give to the soul a true testimony of 
Jesus. 

Thus, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, so as to 
throw the light of our last text upon other passages of Scrip- 
ture, which are parallel to it, we can see distinctly why the 
Lord, having come once, must go away and come again. 
Thus we can see the necessity of the Lord's twofold advent. 

We can see that mankind, being now fallen, and so in 
evil, must first be led by truth to good, and then be led from 
good to truth. Hence, in the redemption of mankind, Jehovah 
descended to the earth as divine truth, in which, nevertheless, 



64 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF 

the divine goodness was stored up as a germ in a seed. He 
came as the word made flesh, yet as the word so in the begin- 
ning with God that it was still God, and so in the bosom of the 
divine essence that it brought that essence forth to view. Thus, 
though he came as the divine truth, he did not separate it from 
the divine goodness. He came as Jesus saving his people from 
their sins ; for he came as " God in Christ reconciling the 
world unto himself." Thus he came as good in truth, bringing 
men from a state of evil into a state of good by conformity to 
that truth. For Jesus, when on earth, told his disciples the 
truth — his words are truth, and by his words are his disciples 
made clean. He spoke his truth to their ears, showed it by his 
conduct to their eyes, and otherwise exhibited it to their senses, 
which are the earth or groundwork of the human mind. Thus 
the Lord not only descended to the earth, but he spake to his 
disciples from the earth. He came as truth down to a bodily 
form and a sensible manifestation, and he addressed the higher 
faculties of man's mind, by and from its lowest faculty. In 
other words, the Lord flowed into the minds of his disciples 
with truth from without. He presented truth to their mere 
knowing faculty. 

But the disciples of the Lord, not being in a state of con- 
formity to the truth which he taught — not having experienced 
it — not having received from him the spirit of it — in fact, being 
rather in a state of opposition to it, they could not hear its dic- 
tates. Its dictates were contrary to all they had previously 
willed and understood ; and hence it was hard to assent to or 
obey them. In their natural state, assent or obedience to the 
dictates of truth was an affliction. And to comfort them in 
this affliction, it was necessary for the Lord to go away. For, 
in order that his disciples might interiorly understand the truth, 
it was necessary that they should will it. And they could not 
will the truth unless the Lord gave them an interior affection 
for it ; that is, affected them in mostly with a love of truth for 
its own sake — thus told them the truth from within. And to 
do this it was necessary that he should go away from them ; 
that is, as they were in a natural state, it wag necessary that 



A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 65 

he should rise above the natural plane of existence, and flow 
into them from the spiritual and the celestial planes — it was 
necessary that he should ascend to their father and his father, 
that he should leave their senses with a visible presentation of 
divine truth, and flow into, and act upon, their spirits from a 
principle of divine love or goodness — should not only tell them 
the truth as a matter of thought, assent, and obedience, in 
which state it is a cross to their natural man, and so afflictive, 
but should give them the truth as a principle flowing from their 
love, that is, should give them a love of the truth for its own 
sake, in which state, the truth, being an object of their affec- 
tion, is delightful to them, thus a comforter. 

But, the incident of the Lord's going awaj from his disciples 
and coming to them again, is susceptible of a more specific 
application to the individual member of the church. In view- 
ing this point, we have to remark, that this incident which our 
text brings into view, represents and signifies the following well 
known state in the process of individual regeneration. The 
first affection developed in the course of regeneration, is the 
love of knowing truths of the church and of heaven. From 
the activities of this love our memories became stored with 
knowledge. In this state the mere knowing of truths is delight- 
ful. This is the budding and blossoming state, and is a means 
whereby truths are made to conduce ultimately to the good of 
life, just as the bud and blossom serve to form the incipient 
fruit. But this love of knowing is at first stimulated by impure 
loves, that is, the loves of self and the world. And hence it 
is seen to be necessary, in the Divine Providence, that the 
truths thus acquired should presently disappear from the recol- 
lection, lest they should be profaned by being made subservient 
to the defence and gratification of those loves, and man be 
brought into eternal condemnation by having those loves 
thereby irrevocably confirmed. And hence, in most, if not in 
all cases, the mere delight of knowing spiritual truths wanes 
away, and is succeeded by the delights of sensual, natural, 
and moral life. Then the spiritual truths which were at 
first vividly in the memory, seem to lapse from the mind. 

7* 



66 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OP 

The blossoms fall from the tree. The external memory in 
which those truths were stored, holds nothing with tenacity 
which is not constantly used in the mind's daily operations. 
And we can at length recollect, or recal at our will, those 
things only which are transferred from the external to the in- 
ternal memory, that is, from the memory of the thoughts to 
the memory of the affections. 

But what is once in the external memory never in fact leaves 
it. Those things that are not recollected become only quiescent. 
And hence, when the affections of the love of use flow down 
into the external memory, they bring to remembrance all its 
dormant truths which are correspondent to those affections. 
Those truths thus sleeping unseen in the external memory, are 
like the obliterated devices impressed on time-worn coins, 
which, when the coins are thrown on a red-hot bar and heated 
to a red heat, become again visible. And just as a red heat 
makes visible the impressions on these ancient coins, so the 
affection of use, flowing into the external memory, makes 
visible the truths dormant there. 

Thus the spiritual truths that are only stored in the external 
memory by the mere affection of knowing, go away, and only 
come again, when the affection of use in the internal man needs 
and seeks them with an end of applying them to life. This, 
therefore, is a particular sense, in which the Lord as truth goes 
away from his disciples, that he may come again unto them in 
the good of that truth. 

Thus the Lord first comes as truth to the sense, knowledge 
and understanding. Then, that the truth may not be defiled 
by remaining in the external man alone, the Lord as truth goes 
away to the father or good ; and from good comes again, by 
flowing through the affections of good in the internal man into 
the truth corresponding to it previously stored up in the external 
memory. And when the Lord, from this high elevation of a 
principle of good, flows into the wills of his disciples, and thus 
influences their principle of life — hereby leading them to do the 
Jruth he had previously told them as a matter of knowledge, 
the spirit of truth comes to them ; for the spirit of truth is the 



A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 67 

life of truth; and the life of truth gives the experience of truth, 
which is the seeing truth in its own light. It is the coming into 
the hidden essence of truth ; for the life of truth leads to the 
good of truth, and good is the essence of truth : and when we 
have the essence, we have the form of course. Hence, when 
we are in good, we perceive truth intuitively ; for truth is the 
form of good. Consequently, when we are in good of any 
degree, we from that good discern all the truth which belongs 
to that degree of good, as an animal has an instinctive percep- 
tion of all the science necessary to attain the ends of its 
affections. Thus it is that the spirit of truth, when it comes 
from the Lord to his disciples, guides them into all truth. 

We presume it is clear, from what has now been shown, that 
the spirit, in its true nature, is truth proceeding from the Lord ; 
and therefore, by the spirit, the comforter, which testifies of 
Jesus, is not meant, as is very generally supposed, a distinct 
individuality, or a person separate from two other persons in 
the godhead, but a spherical emanation from the Lord Jesus, 
expressing his quality, as the effluvium of a rose expresses the 
quality of that flower, and affecting the minds of his disciples 
internally with a love of the truth for its* own sake; which 
love, flowing into their wills and prompting them to do the 
truth, gives them, in the doing of it, an experimental knowledge, 
and so an inward perception, of the truth. All which was sig- 
nified by the Lord's breathing on his disciples and saying, 
" Receive ye the holy ghost." 

Before we close this topic, we may just observe, that this 
subject admits of a somewhat varied presentation. This 
spirit of truth proceeds from the Lord and flows into man 
in a twofold way: for there is a twofold influx of life from 
the Lord, that is to say, an immediate and a mediate influx. 
The spirit of truth proceeds from the Lord, and flows into 
men, by the intermediation of angels, as well as from his own 
glorified humanity immediately : for angels are fct ministering 
spirits sent forth to minister to those who will be heirs of sal- 
vation." Hence the spirit of truth may now, as well as in 
apostolic times, be continually flowing into man through par- 



68 JESUS NOT INFERIOR TO THE FATHER 

ticular angelic societies and by the spirits attendant on him 
from thence, as well as immediately from the Lord's divine 
humanity in the whole complex heaven. The immediate influx 
from the Lord's humanity gives to man a general light to see 
spiritual truths as objects of faith in the Word, as well as a 
general inclination and faculty to live those truths. And the 
Lord's mediate influx through angels and spirits, excites man's 
general powers to determinate activity. And when angels and 
spirits, as the Lord's agents, acting on what is correspondent 
to themselves in man, that is, on his understanding to see, and 
his will to do, lead him from motive and precept to act accord- 
ing to truth, while the Lord himself flows directly into man's 
inmost with a love of truth for its own sake, so as to lead him 
to do the truth spontaneously ; then the Lord sends unto man 
the spirit or life of truth, whereby he perceives in his own ex- 
perience, thus by a light within himself, that the truth which 
Jesus Christ uttered when on earth, and now utters in the letter 
of his Word, to his knowing and understanding faculty, is in- 
deed true. Thus it is that the spirit of truth, when it comes 
unto his disciples from Jesus, testifies to them concerning him 
as "the truth," and brings all things which he had said unto 
them to their remembrance. For, when this spirit comes to 
man ; that is, when man acts according to the Lord's precepts, 
the life of these precepts forms the Lord himself in man, so 
that man can see in himself the Lord's form, which is his truth, 
and perceive the Lord's quality, which is his goodness ; and 
thus he receives testification of w r ho and what the Lord is. 

We come now, in the second place, to consider the latter 
clause of our text, which contains the assertion of our Lord, 
that he is inferior to the father. This matter will be discussed 
more fully hereafter. We shall notice it briefly here, because 
the subject which we have now discussed helps to explain it, 
and because a brief explanation of it now is needful to do away 
its apparent contradiction of the theme of our first discourse, 
that Jesus Christ and the father are one. " Ye have heard 
how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If 



AS ONE PERSON IS TO ANOTHER PERSON. 69 

ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the 
father : for my father is greater than J." 

Some contend from this that Jesus is not only a distinct per- 
son from the father, but also a being inferior to him. But the 
connection, when properly explained, shows that he did not in- 
tend to teach any such doctrine. He had before said that he 
and the father were one, — that they who saw him saw the 
father, — thus asserting an absolute identity between himself 
and the father. Paul also declares, expressly, that, " being in 
the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with 
God." This expression of Paul confirms the view which we 
have taken of the relation of Jesus Christ to the father, namely, 
the relation of a form to an essence. For God in his essential 
being must be confessedly an invisible and incomprehensible 
divine essence, in the bosom of which Jesus Christ dwells as 
the son of it — the image, the likeness of it — so as to bring it 
forth to view ; that is, a principle of truth or wisdom flowing 
forth from it as a principle of love, and showing the quality of 
that love in the perfect practice of its precepts. Hence Paul, 
in another place, speaking of "the appearing of our Lord Jesus 
Christ," says, " which [appearing or appearance] the blessed 
and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords — who 
only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can 
approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom 
be honour and power everlasting ; amen — shall, in his own 
time, show forth." (1 Tim. vi. 15.) Thus the appearing, the 
outward manifestation, or the personal appearance of our Lord 
Jesus Christ is at the same time the bringing forth to view the 
otherwise unapproachable and invisible divine essence ; so that 
Jesus Christ could say, those who see him see the father, and 
that no man cometh unto the father but by him. Wherefore, 
the true relation of Jesus to the father is that of a form to an 
essence, which is the relation of wisdom to love, or of truth to 
good. 

Hence it is clear that the Lord does not, in the present pas- 
sage, mean to teach that he as one person is inferior to the 
father as another person. He is speaking to his disciples, as 



70 JESUS NOT INFERIOR TO THE FATHER 

truth personified, and apparently distinct from the love which 
|v'as in him as a soul. He was about to leave them, as a visible 
doctrinal and sensible presentation of truth, and to " ascend far 
above all heavens, that he might fill all things" — to " ascend 
to their father and his father," " to their God and his God," 
that is, to the essential divine love, which is the generator 
and so the father of all things, and from which, therefore, 
Christ, as a distinctive principle and personification of truth, 
was at first begotten. He as " the truth" was about to be more 
fully, that is, infinitely, united to the divine good from which he 
originally came forth, and so to be " glorified with the glory 
which he had with the father before the world (jca^os) was;" 
that is, before the incarnation of the word or divine truth. For, 
as to the word, he was from eternity with God and was God — 
the infinite and eternal form of the divine essence. And his 
birth in flesh on earth was the enveloping of the divine truth 
or the word in an orderly arrangement (x.o<rpos) of all the parts 
and principles of human nature ; so that, by conforming human 
nature to the divine truth, in fulfilling every jot and tittle of the 
word from a principle of divine love, he might take human 
nature infinitely up to the divine essence, from which he came 
forth into this temporal world, and of which he had ever been 
the form in the eternal world. The divine essence is, as we 
have said, the divine love or goodness : and the whole of the 
Lord's life on earth was a process of glorification, whereby 
this love or goodness, his inmost principle at conception on 
this earth, was developed in his outward conduct, so as to 
make his external man, assumed in time, more and more con- 
formed to that inmost as his internal man, until his external 
on earth should bear the same relation to the divine essence or 
goodness that he as the word had done before conception, that 
is, from eternity. And when Jesus Christ, as this external 
man, was thus more intimately because infinitely united to the 
divine goodness, so as to become divine goodness itself in out- 
ward form, and thus to have all power given to him on earth 
(or his external man) as well as in heaven (or his internal man) ; 
then he was to come to his disciples again — not, as before, out- 



AS ONE PERSON IS TO ANOTHER PERSON. 71 

wardly, in the form of mere truth, as a. form of doctrine or sen- 
sible precept, but, inwardly, in the heart's emotion and the will'^ 
determination, as the good of that truth — thus in filling his disci- 
ples from an inmost ground with the vastly increased powers and 
felicities of that good,which, as it is in a higher degree than the 
truth that proceeds from it, just as an essence is in a higher 
degree than its form, is therefore said to be greater than the 
truth. Thus it is that the father, as a principle of good, was 
greater than Jesus Christ, as a principle of truth. 

And the disciples, if they had really loved the Lord, instead 
of loving themselves — if they had loved the truth for its own 
sake, instead of loving it on account of its administering in some 
way to self-interest or self-gratification — thus, if they had loved 
the truth for the sake of the good to which it leads in the 
regeneration of their own souls and the souls of all men, they 
would have rejoiced, because the Lord said he was going unto 
the father ; for they would have seen that the father was greater 
than he — they would have perceived that the principle of good- 
ness was in a higher degree and therefore more important and 
more essential to their salvation than a principle of mere truth. 
And the thought of his more intimate union with the father, 
and his consequent more powerful operation on their spirits 
with the spirit of his truth, would have been in the highest de- 
gree delightful to them ; because this thought and conviction 
would have refreshed and strengthened their spiritual love of 
the Lord's essential qualities ; whereas they were in the natural 
love of his person, and promising themselves that worldly emi- 
nence and that earthly comfort which the presence and the 
influence of his person here on earth would give ; and hence 
were feeling sorrowful and desolate in the thought of his de- 
parture. 

Thus this passage does not imply a personal inferiority of the 
Lord Jesus to the father. It only implies that inferiority which 
exists between truth and good, or between a form and its essence, 
or a body and its soul. And it implies this only when the body 
is considered distinctively from the soul, or the form from the 
essence, or truth from good. Hence it was only said by the 



72 JESUS NOT INFERIOR TO THE FATHER 

Lord, that the father was greater than he, while he was yet not 
fully glorified — while, as divine truth apparently separate, he 
was not yet fully, that is, infinitely, united with the divine good, 
from which he originally proceeded • In the degree that this 
union took place, in the same degree he and the father were 
one ; so that all things which the father had were his, and they 
that saw him saw the father. Hence it was a ground of re- 
joicing that, when he left the disciples as to the flesh, he would, 
by a more intimate union with the father or essential divine 
principle, be in a capacity to impart infinitely greater blessings 
to their spirits. 

The consideration which we have given to our subject enables 
us, then, to see, that the inferiority of himself to the father, of 
which the Lord Jesus speaks, is not the inferiority, of one per- 
son to another in the godhead, but the subordination of an ex- 
ternal to an internal principle, which is indispensable to a 
perfect unity of all the divine principles in the one divine per- 
son, Jesus Christ. Such is the clear evidence of his sole divinity, 
which the spirit of truth, when its true nature is known, gives, 
in its testification of Jesus. 

What, then, is the sum of the subjects discussed in this and 
the last discourse ? It is, in few words, this : that the spirit 
which testifies to us truly of Jesus Christ, is the life of his truth, 
proceeding from good in him and leading to corresponding 
good in us. It is the life of truth, flowing from the love of 
truth for its own sake. This life cannot be lived at first ; for 
all men are first natural, and therefore at first actuated by the 
love of self; but, if we mortify and deny self-love, in obedience 
to the divine commands, we shall at length become so spiritual, 
that the Lord can send this life unto us. And when this spirit 
or life comes to us, it relieves us from the turmoils and deep 
temptations consequent on the conflicts between our external 
and our internal man — thus gives us internal peace and external 
tranquillity, and so is our comforter, guiding us into all the 
truth that is correspondent to the love in which we are princi- 
pled, and making us know, in the lively experience of its effects, 



AS ONE PERSON IS TO ANOTHER PERSON. 73 

the good to which that truth leads, so as to testify to us of that 
good. 

If, then, we would know the truth, and the good of it, with- 
out any possibility of deception, let us put away, by self exami- 
nation, contrition and repentance, every love which is contrary 
to the divine love : then will the divine love flow into us, and 
by its own light guide us in true wisdom's ways, which are 
pleasantness, and keep us unerringly in her paths, which are 
peace. 



SERMON IV 



JOHN, XX. 22. 



« And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye 
the holy ghost." 

In the first of the two discourses immediately preceding, we 
showed the true nature of the spirit which testifies of Jesus, 
and in the last, we proceeded to throw the light of that discus- 
sion upon certain passages of the Word in which the holy 
spirit is mentioned, so as to show the nature and necessity of 
the Lord's second advent, as well as to explain the sense in 
which Jesus Christ asserts his inferiority to the father. The 
design of all was, to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is one with 
the father and the holy spirit — that in him, as one divine person, 
dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily ; and, therefore, 
that he is God alone, and the sole object of christian worship. 

We shall, in this discourse, pursue this subject, so as still 
further to show the identity of Jesus Christ in person, with both 
the holy spirit and the father. For it is only in the degree that 
we can remove from the common mind the prevalent erroneous 
notion of these being three separate and distinct persons in the 
godhead, that we can have any hope of introducing the true 
idea of their being nothing more than three distinct principles 
in the one person Jesus Christ. On the present occasion, 
therefore, we shall still further show from the Word, as the 
true and palpable meaning of our present text, that the holy 
spirit is not a person separate from Jesus, but a divine sphere 
proceeding from him. 

Little need now be said in further disproof of the personality 



THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON". 75 

of the holy spirit. For we have shown that the father, the 
son and the holy spirit are no otherwise distinct than fire, 
flame and a sphere of heat and light are in the sun. We may 
here just say, that they are no otherwise distinct than are soul, 
body and conduct in man. We suppose, therefore, that the 
holy ghost is the operation of the Lord Jesus from the father 
within him. For it is our doctrine, that the father, or essential 
divine principle, is the soul of the Lord Jesus ; that Jesus 
Christ, or the human principle which the essential divinity 
assumed and glorified in time, is the body of the father ; and 
thus that the holy spirit is the conduct, or operation of this 
body from this souL It is, then, in the sense of the holy 
spirit's being a divine sphere proceeding from the son, that we 
suppose the Lord Jesus and the holy spirit to be one : and a 
very few passages from the Word will prove this. 

But, before we bring forward this proof from the Word, we 
must remark upon the term person, and notice the argument 
in favour of the personality of the holy spirit from the use of 
the masculine pronoun. 

Among those who hold to a tri-personal God, there seems 
to be, as already intimated, some diversity of opinion as to what is 
to be understood by the term person. It is generally defined " an 
individual substance of a rational intelligent nature." This is 
the common theological definition. And, though some object 
to the use of the term person in this sense, in reference to the 
trinity, yet it is generally maintained, that " no single term, at 
least, can be found more suitable, and that it can hardly be 
condemned as unscriptural or improper." Let us see. 

In the english translation of the New Testament, the word 
person is used in the singular about eight times, and in the 
plural, persons, about six times. This word is used more fre- 
quently in the Old Testament, but never, it is believed, in 
express application to the Divine Being. And of the fourteen 
times that it is used in the New Testament, it is applied to the 
Divine Being, as the father or the son, only twice, and as the 
holy spirit not once. The instance in which it is applied to the 
father is Heb. i. 3 ; where, speaking of the son, it is said. 



&$ THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON 

" who, being the brightness of [God's] glory, and the express 
image of his person" &c. And the instance in which it is 
applied to the son is 2 Cor. ii. 10 — " for if I forgave any thing, 
to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it, in the person 
of Christ." Of the instances in which the word person is used 
not in express application to the Divine Being, take Matt. xxii. 
16 ; where the disciples of the Pharisees and the Herodians say 
to the Lord, " Master — we know that thou carest not for any 
man ,* for thou regardest not the person of men." Paul says, 
(1 Cor. v. 13,) "But them that are without, God judgeth. 
Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked per- 
son" Again, (Heb. xii. 16,) he says, " Lest there be any 
profane person, as Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his 
birth-right." Peter says, (2 Epist. iii. 11,) what manner of 
persons ought ye to be ?" And Jude, in the sixteenth verse of 
his Epistle, speaks of " having men's persons in admiration for 
advantage." 

In general, the word person is applied to signify, first, a par- 
ticular individual man or woman ; second, the outward qualities 
and conditions of men ; and, third, sight, name, or authority. 
As an instance of this last signification, you have the passage 
of Paul which we have quoted from 2 Cor. ii. 10 ; where, when he 
says he forgave in Christ's person, he means in the sight, the name 
or the authority of Christ. Now by a reference to the original, 
we find that the greek word which is rendered person, in refer- 
ence to individuals and to their external qualities, is 7rpo<r*)7ro)>. 
It is this same word which Paul uses when speaking of the 
person of Christ in the 2 Cor. ii. 10, iv TrporaTra Xpicrx, as well 
as when he speaks, in the eleventh verse of the first chapter 
of the same epistle, of " the gift bestowed on the apostles by 
the means of many persons" The word, then, which was 
used in the greek language to signify an individual man or 
woman, or the outward qualities and conditions of men, or the 
name and authority of Jesus Christ, is 7rpoG-a7ro)>. And this 
word is derived from sr^s, to, and aty, the eye ; and signifies, in 
the literal idea, whatever meets the eye. Hence it was used in 
greek to signify the visage, the face, the countenance, the mien, 



BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 77 

the aspect, or appearance ; as in the phrase %<*,?& vrpowxov, 
before his face, and in the word 7rpo<rc<>7ro*r,7rTij$, a respecter of 
persons ; for these are what meet the eye, when we behold an 
individual. From this ground the Grecians employed the word 
to signify the mask, which, among them, was used by a perform- 
er on the stage. And hence it came to signify a character 
or a person in a theatrical representation. And in general it 
signified a person considered with respect to external appear- 
ance or circumstances. It is therefore manifest that, when the 
word person is used in reference to the Divine Being, it should 
mean all that of God which meets the eye. Hence the person of 
God is he who is the manifestation of the whole godhead ; it is he 
in whom all the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily ; it is the 
only begotten son, who is in the bosom of the father and brings 
him forth to view. And the word person used in this sense in 
express application to the Divine Being, is only spoken of 
Jesus Christ, or the son, and never of the father. For in Heb. 
i. 3, — the only instance in the Bible in which the word person is 
used in reference to God the father, — the greek word which the 
english translator has rendered person is eJ^oVr^c-/?, which never 
means person in the greek language, except when applied to per- 
sonality as a distinct substance; and in this sense it surely can 
never be applied to the trinity: for to maintain that the father 
the son, and the holy spirit are three distinct divine substances, 
would be to maintain, in the most unequivocal manner, that 
there are three gods. And this is against the creed of even 
the old church, which holds that, though there are in the god- 
head three, yet these three are one in substance, power and 
glory. 

The word person, therefore, in any sense in which it can be ap- 
plied to the Divine Being, that is, the word person as the rendering 
of the greek word 7irpora7rov ) is never used in the Word in re- 
ference to the father. And hence it is unscriptural to call the 
father a person. 

The word o^oVr^c^, which Paul applies to God the father, is 
derived from vtto, under, and Itt^ui, to stand ,* hence it signifies, 
in the literal idea, that which stands under, and was used by 

8* 



78 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON 

the Greeks to mean a basis, foundation, bottom, supporter, or 
stay. Hence it signified a ground or motive of action, and the 
first principle, cause, or beginning of a thing. And hence, by 
a very natural figure of speech, it might be applied to the soul, 
in respect to the body. For as the body is formed from the 
soul, and all the activities of the body are derived from the soul, 
and the body dies when the soul leaves it, hence the soul may 
be said to stand under the body, or may be said to be its basis, 
foundation, bottom, supporter, or stay. 

Now the body is that which meets the eye in respect to the 
soul. Hence the body is the vrpirairov of the soul, and the soul 
is the v7rirTcurt$ of the body. As, then, the word yrpowTrov is 
by the apostle invariably applied to the son, while the word 
u7ro<rTc6<n$ is applied to the father, it would seem to be intimated 
hereby that there is the same relation between the father and 
the son that there is between the soul and the body, or between 
an invisible divine substance and its visible form. 

The two greek words from which biroo-rant is derived, namely 
vto and Irrvfii, are the same as sub and sto in latin; from 
which comes our word substance. And, therefore, the proper 
rendering of unou-rao-is in english would be substance. Hence 
substance is the only proper word to apply to God the father. 
And the son is the express image of the father's substance 
— the xctpoiKTvp ti}$ v7ro<rTurea$ avrou. This greek word, %,apot.7c,Tv)p y 
from which comes our english word, character, signifies an)' 
instrument for making an incision or impression; hence, a die 
for coining ; hence, the image on the coin made by the die ; 
hence, the engraved image, the portrait, the lineaments, the 
features, the form, the appearance, the peculiar disposition and 
character of the substance or thing which is brought into form. 
The son, then, is the express image, the portrait, the charac- 
ter, of the father's substance — he is the distinct form, the ex- 
pressed nature, by which the essential divine substance is 
discriminated and brought forth to view ; thus he is the ^pio-ancy 
of God — he is that which makes God meet the eye ; hence he 
said to Philip, " he that seeth me seeth the father:" and there- 
fore he is the person of God. And as he only presents God to 



BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 7$ 

Yiew, therefore we say there is but one person in the godhead : 
for the holy ghost is never called in any sense the person of 
God. 

We are, therefore, more free to prove, from the Word, what 
we advanced, in our last two discourses, namely, that the holy 
spirit is a divine sphere flowing forth from Jesus Christ. And 
before we proceed to quote texts from the Word in proof of this 
position, we shall only stop to draw an argument in favour of 
it from the etymology of the expression that is used in the 
Word to signify the spirit. 

The greek word in the New Testament for spirit is, mtu/*.* — 
ciyiov nveufAct, holy spirit or ghost. Now the literal signification 
of this greek word is, wind, and, by derivation from this, 
breath. Hence, as we live by breathing, it is put for spirit, or 
life. Thus holy spirit properly signifies holy life. And hence, 
when applied to the Divine Being, it properly signifies divine 
life. 

Thus the etymology of the term shows that the life or opera- 
tion of the Lord is meant by holy ghost. Keeping this idea in 
our minds, we shall be able to understand all those passages of 
the Word where mention is made of the holy ghost, the holy 
spirit, or the spirit of truth, without supposing that these terms 
mean a person separate and distinct from the Lord. It is called 
the spirit of truth, because the Lord, from whom it proceeds, is 
truth itself. For he says, " I am the way, the truth, and the 
life," (John, xiv. 6 ;) and hence, all that which proceeds from 
him must of necessity be the breath, the active operation, or 
the spirit, of truth ; and this is the same as truth itself: the only 
difference being that of truth in cause and truth in effect. 
Hence the holy ghost is effectual truth proceeding from the 
Lord. 

That the holy ghost is truth — thus a principle, and not a 
personality or individuality, could not be proved more conclu- 
sively than it has been in a previous discourse, by that direct 
and remarkable assertion of John, (1 Epist. v. 6,) " And it is 
the spirit that beareth witness, because the spirit is truth." 
It was also shown that, therefore, the holy spirit is called the 



80 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON 

comforter, because truth proceeding from the Lord and entering 
the minds of men, is that which supports them in temptation, 
strengthens them in weakness, and consoles them in affliction. 

These things being known, we need not be at any loss to un- 
derstand the Lord where he says, "I tell you the truth; it is 
expedient for you that I go away : for if I go not away, the 
comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send 
him unto you," (John, xvi. 7.) " Howbeit, when the spirit of 
truth is come, he will guide you into all truth ; for he shall not 
speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he 
speak," (John, xvi. 13.) " He shall glorify me; for he shall 
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that 
the father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of 
mine, and shall show it unto you," (John, xvi. 14, 15.) " I will 
pray the father and he shall give you another comforter, the spirit 
of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him 
not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth 
with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless, 
J will come to you," (John, xiv. 16, 17.) " When the comforter 
shall come, whom I will send unto you from the father, even 
the spirit of truth, he shall testify of me," (John, xv. 26.) 
This spirit of truth is called the holy ghost in John, xiv. 26. 

Now from these passages, explained as they have been on 
former occasions, it surely must be manifest, that the Lord, by 
the comforter or holy ghost, means himself as to the sphere of 
truth which proceeds from him. And this is made evident es- 
pecially by these clauses , " the world would not know him" — 
"but ye know him." For, as we have before remarked, his 
disciples had not known the holy ghost as a person separate 
and distinct from the Lord. It could not have been in this 
sense, therefore, that the Lord said they knew him. How then 
did they know him ? Clearly in no other way than as truth, 
or as a divine spiritual influence, proceeding from the Lord 
Jesus. 

And as the sphere which emanates from a person makes one 
with the person himself, hence the Lord, when speaking of 
sending the holy ghost to them, said "/will come unto you" — 



BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING TROM JESUS. 81 

and "ye shall see me" Thus, when they saw the holy ghost, 
they saw Jesus ; for they saw the emanating sphere of Jesus ; 
that is, they saw mentally, or inwardly perceived, his sphere 
operating on their hearts. And that he himself was present 
with them by his holy spirit, he indicates where he says, " Lo ! 
1 am with you always, even unto the end of the world," (Matt, 
xxviii. 20 ;) and " He shall not speak of himself, but he shall 
take of mine." Consequently, Jesus Christ and the holy ghost 
are one. 

But here we come to the main design of this discourse, 
namely, to answer the argument which the old church advances 
for the personality of the holy ghost from the fact that he is 
spoken of in the third person masculine : thus, " he shall not 
speak of himself." For this is the only plausible argument 
which we have ever heard advanced from the Bible to prove 
the holy ghost's distinct personality. 

Now, in answer to this argument, we have to observe, that, 
in the greek language, the genders have not the same gram- 
matical power that they have in the english. In the english 
language, except in poetic usage, all objects which are not either 
male or female, are put in the neuter gender, and take the neu- 
ter pronoun it. But it is not so in the greek. In that tongue, 
the gender of nouns is not determined by sexual distinction, 
but on the apparently arbitrary principle of the termination of 
words. Thus a noun will be masculine because it ends in es, 
feminine because it ends in *, and neuter because it ends in ov ; 
and this without any regard to distinction of sex. Hence it is, 
that words which signify things impersonal and inanimate, are 
in the masculine or the feminine gender. 

For the same reason the masculine and feminine pronouns 
are put for nouns signifying impersonal and inanimate things, 
because the nouns are grammatically in the masculine or femi- 
nine gender. Thus, when the holy spirit is called the com- 
forter, — because this word comforter in the greek has a mas- 
culine termination [0 nxpuKXyToq,] — the holy ghost is styled he: 
but when the words holy spirit [aytov 7rvsZ,ucc] occur, because 
the word spirit [me up.*] has a neuter termination, the holy 



82 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON 

ghost is styled it ; as may be seen in John, xiv. 17. So that no 
argument for the personality of the holy ghost can be raised 
from the use of the masculine pronoun. 

It is true that the masculine pronoun Uelvog, he, is in some 
instances used for the neuter noun 7rveupx, spirit, as in John, 
xvi. 13; but this is not conclusive, because it is not uniform. 
For, if this masculine pronoun was used in this instance ex- 
pressly to signify that the holy ghost is a person, the evangelist 
would have always used it in the same connection. But this he 
does not. Thus, in ch. xiv. 16, 17, he says, [*#* uXXov TrxpctxXyrov 

OGura vfjCtv^ivct, ftevy [*.£$•' vfiav et$ rev aicovce,. To 7rveuftoc tvj$ kXr t $tiot<;> 
o o x,oG-fAo$ ov ouvocrcci Xafieiv oTi ou 3-ecvpei uvto> ovo^e yi\coa-x.ei uvto. 
Yfists $£ yivaa-KBTs ctv7o, oTt vetp' v(MV [level, xc\i Iv vfA.iv tectt,] 

" And I will pray the father, and he shall give you another 
comforter, that it may abide with you for ever ; the spirit of 
truth ; which the world cannot receive, because it seethe not." 
In the common english version, it is said, " whom the world 
cannot receive, because it seeth him not ;" but, in the original, 
these are neuter pronouns 2 and uvto, agreeing with the neuter 
noun ffvevpa, and should be rendered which and it. So that, 
admitting that the use of the masculine pronoun Ae, in one 
place, in reference to the holy ghost, proves his personality ; 
we have just as good grounds to argue that the use of the neu- 
ter pronoun i£, in another place, proves that the holy ghost is 
not a person. And thus the arguments drawn from the gram- 
matical structure of sentences, confute one another. 

Besides, there are instances in which pronouns, or pronomi- 
nal adjectives, are used in the masculine gender for words in 
the neuter gender, which obviously cannot signify persons. 

Thus, John's 1 Epist. V. 8, [K<*/ rpelq liriv ot (/.ccpTvpovvTsq h ry yy, 

to 7rveZf4.cc, x,&\t to ulap, jca t to uivlci.] " And there are three that 
bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood." 
Here the pronominal adjective Tpslg and the article ot are in 
the first person, plural, masculine gender, relating to the neuter 
nouns, to TTveZfjLoty to v£ap, and to at^a. And hence, if the 
use of the masculine pronoun !*$7w$ in reference to the neuter 
noun to 7FvsvfjL(c proves that to be a person, so the use of it 



BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 83 

rpelg in this instance proves that to Map and ro citftot are 
persons. 

The truth is, that nothing can be more futile than an argu- 
ment of this kind. On the same grounds you might prove the 
personality of a thousand shapeless and inanimate things which 
are expressed in greek by words of masculine termination. 
The genius of the ancient languages is essentially different 
from the english in this respect. The genders of their nouns 
and pronouns were not determined by a regard to sex and per- 
son ; and hence the use of pronouns in a particular gender, 
proves nothing with regard to personality. In the hebrew 
language, as also in some modern languages, the french, for 
instance, there is no neuter gender at all : and hence, in those 
languages, all objects are either masculine or feminine, and 
require the masculine and feminine pronouns. Thus, in the 
french, the nose [le ne%\ is masculine, and the mouth [la louche] 
is feminine ; and the Frenchman would say of the one Ae, and 
of the other she. Now an argument upon which so important 
a doctrine as the personality of Deity is grounded, should ap- 
ply with equal force in all languages : but what argument 
would it be to the Frenchman that the holy ghost is a person 
because it is called 7*e, when the Frenchman calls the nose in 
his face he ! This argument then avails nothing in proving 
the personality of the holy ghost. 

To return, then, to our proof from the Word, we may ob- 
serve, finally, that there are many other passages which go to 
show that the holy ghost is not a person distinct from the father 
and the son as two other persons. Let these few suffice. " The 
holy ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not glorified," 
(John, vii. 39.) With the idea that the holy ghost is a person 
separate from the father and the son, of equal power and glory, 
very and eternal God, this passage, especially when taken in 
connection with Matt. i. 20, where the Lord's humanity is said 
to be conceived of the holy ghost, is totally unintelligible; but its 
meaning is comprehensible enough, if by the holy ghost we 
understand the divine truth proceeding from the Lord's glorified 
body. 



84 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON 

Again, and very especially, in our text, after the Lord's 
glorification, it is said, "he breathed on his disciples and said, 
receive ye the holy ghost." From this it is perfectly manifest 
that the holy ghost is not a person, for how could the Lord 
breathe a person on his disciples ? or how could his disciples re- 
ceive a person in his breath ] If it be said, that the holy ghost 
as a person might have existed invisibly in the Lord's breath ; 
we ask, in reply, how could the holy ghost, who is supposed to 
be coequal with the Lord, be less visible as a person than the 
Lord himself? Let it be borne in mind, in this connection, that 
the scripture signification of the word person, or ^oc-^woy, is, 
that which meets the eye ; and then let it be told us, how the 
holy ghost, or any thing else, can be a person, when it is in- 
visible. Surely, it must be perfectly plain, from this text, that 
the holy ghost is nothing else but the Lord's proceeding sphere 
or influence. 

Again, John (Matt. iii. 11) says, "I indeed baptize you 
with water ; but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with 
the holy ghost." Now you might just as well suppose that 
the water with which John baptized was a person distinct from 
John, as to suppose that the holy ghost with which the Lord 
baptizes is a person distinct from the Lord. 

But enough. We cannot believe there is any one who, after 
a deliberate and candid investigation of the texts of Scripture 
which have been cited, will still maintain the distinct individu- 
ality of the holy ghost. Jesus Christ and the holy ghost, then, 
are one. And as he and the father are one, we come to the 
conclusion, that Jesus Christ is a complex of the father, the son, 
and the holy ghost. 

With what peculiar propriety and force, then, does Paul say, 
" In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily" ! 
(Col. ii. 9.) And how fully is the new church justified, both on 
rational and scriptural grounds, in maintaining that the trinity 
is in Jesus Christ ! 

We will close this branch of our subject with some senten- 
tious reflections. If Jesus Christ and the father are one and 
the same person, what becomes of that system of theology 



BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 85 

which rests on the idea that there are three separate and dis- 
tinct persons in the godhead ? — like the baseless fabric of a 
vision, it vanishes, and leaves not a wreck behind ! If there 
is no son begotten from eternity, — very God, equal in all respects 
with the father, and yet separate and distinct from the father — 
how could such a son descend, assume our nature and be " cruci- 
fied, dead and buried, to reconcile his father to us, and to be 
a sacrifice both for original guilt and for actual sins of men" ? 
If there is not an infinite and eternal being separate and 
distinct from the father, how can it be said that such a 
being has rendered an infinite sacrifice for sin ; and, by thus 
satisfying the infinite justice of the father, and atoning for 
the infinite transgression of finite man, has made his sal- 
vation possible without a conformity to the divine law ? 
If Jesus Christ and the father are one and the same being, 
how can the father, as a separate being, impute his right- 
eousness to man ? If Jesus Christ is God himself, how can 
his righteousness be imputed ? How can that which is di- 
vine be imputed to a finite being ? The Lord's righteousness 
consists in that process by which he wrought out redemption. 
But this was a divine work. His redemption, then, or his 
righteousness, can no more be imputed to man than creation, or 
any divine attribute. If, moreover, we cannot be saved by tho 
righteousness of a second person in the godhead, imputed to us, 
what becomes of faith alone, and the imputation of faith, and 
ail that concatenation of doctrines which teach that man may, 
and must be saved, without an actual conformity to the divine 
law ? — which teach that we are saved by the passive reception 
of divine grace, instead of an active co-operation with the 
Lord's spirit, operating in and by us ? — which, in a word, teach 
that we are saved by believing right, instead of doing right ? 
Admit that the godhead is in one person, — that in " Christ 
dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily " — and these 
dogmas fall to the ground. Yes ! that chain of false principles 
— dependent from a tri-personal god — which has shackled 
and cramped the human mind for centuries, and still binds it 

9 



86 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON. 

down in adamantine bonds, is fused and scattered to the winds 
by this electric truth, Jesus and the father are one ! 

Finally, if the father is in Jesus Christ, we can only ap- 
proach the father through him. Is it not then a lamentable 
fact, that many — alas, too many ! — of those calling themselves 
Christians, are looking for the father out of him ? How many 
consider Jesus as a mere messenger sent from God! And 
though he expressly says, " No man cometh to the father but 
by me;" though he avers explicitly, " I and my father are owe," 
"he that seeth me seeth the father," "I am in the father and 
the father in me" — how many are forming to themselves no- 
tions of the father as a being out of and separate from the 
Lord, and, by addressing their prayers to the father as a being 
distinct from the Lord, are thus passing by him and going to 
the father direct! Oh, let us devoutly pray, that all such 
may take care that they come not under the description of 
persons who enter not in at the door, but, climbing up some other 
way, are thieves and robbers ! 



SERMON V 



JOHN, I. 1, 4, 14. 

« In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the 
word was God. — In him was life, and the life was the light of men. — - 
And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his 
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father,) full of grace and 
truth. ,, 

In former discourses we have shown that Jesus Christ and 
the father are one person ; and that the holy ghost is not a per- 
son, but a sphere of truth, proceeding from Jesus Christ and 
the essential divinity within him, and teaching that Jesus Christ 
is God alone. Thus we have subverted the idea of three divine 
persons in the godhead, at the same time that we have affirmed 
the doctrine of a trinity of 'principles as constituent of the one 
God. 

We are now to inquire what are the three constituent prin- 
ciples of Deity. We have shown that, in all things which 
exist around us, there is an inmost, a middle, and an outer- 
most — that is, an active principle, a reactive principle, and the 
result of these, which is a spherical, an operative, or an 
influential principle. And, reasoning from nature up to nature's 
God, we have concluded that there must be in the Divine Being 
also, an active, a reactive and an influential principle. But it 
may be asked, what are these distinctive principles in the 
Deity ? This can be answered only by the revelation which 
he has made of himself. For it is not possible that any created 
being can know who or what God is, unless God informs him. 
Now the Divine Being has revealed himself in his works and 
his Word. For his " eternal power and godhead are clearly 



88 WHAT ARE THE THREE 

seen, being understood by the things that are made," (Rom. i. 
20.) And his written Word must manifestly present a de- 
claration of his being and a portraiture of his character. Let 
us then see what evidence, bearing upon the question before us, 
is furnished by these two witnesses. 

There is no one of the Creator's works which so entirely 
and vividly reflects himself as man. Indeed, man is asserted 
to be a world in miniature, and hence he must present all the 
scattered reflections of the Deity, which are to be seen in the 
whole of his other works, in one focal image. It is moreover 
expressly asserted in the Word that God created man in his 
own image and likeness. Wherefore, by seeing what are the 
constituent principles of man, we are to understand what are 
the constituent principles of God. But our understandings are 
not left to inductions from the evidence of our senses solely. 
Our spiritual-rational faculty is addressed and enlightened by 
truth revealed in an intellectual form in the Sacred Scriptures. 
In pursuing our present inquiry, therefore, we shall at the same 
time bring forward the documents of Holy Writ, as well as the 
evidence furnished by our own internal consciousness. 

The first point of our inquiry is, what is the active principle 
of God ? And here we must remark, that we can have no 
adequate conception whatever of the Deity as he exists in his 
essential substance and form, because that which is finite cannot 
grasp that which is infinite. We do not, therefore, presume 
to say what any divine principle is as such ; for this is totally 
incomprehensible. We merely profess to show the constituents 
of the divine nature only as they can be apprehended by our 
finite capacities. Nor is it necessary that we should be able to 
comprehend the Divine Being fully : for this is not required 
by the ends of our creation. All that is necessary is, that we 
should have such a conception of him as will enable us to enjoy 
eternal life in conjunction with him. Now, the only way in 
which we can conceive of his properties, is by attending to our 
consciousness of the corresponding properties in ourselves 
which exist by influx from him. Thus we can form no idea of 
the divine active principle unless it be as something similar to 



COtfSfif UEtfT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 89 

the active principle in us. We must suppose that God is that 
in an infinite form which we perceive ourselves to be in a finite 
form. We must suppose, therefore, that that which is the ac- 
tive principle in us finitely is the active principle in him infinitely. 
And we must call this property in him by the same name which 
we attach to the corresponding property in ourselves, and 
signify all that which we cannot comprehend in his property, 
by the qualifying adjective, divine. 

What, then, is the active principle in ourselves ? A strict 
scrutiny of the human constitution will show that the active 
principle of man is love. By this we mean not a mere plea- 
surable emotion of our heart, but the all-pervading conatus or 
tendency of that inmost organized spiritual substance which 
constitutes our soul. This conatus is the effect of the divine 
life flowing as heat into the inmost forms of our soul, and is 
perceived by us as an all-prevading end of action. Thus, if we 
are in our state by nature, our love is love to self, that is an 
all-prevading end of self- gratification. But, if we are regene- 
rated, our love is love to God and the neighbour ; that is, an end 
incessantly proposed to ourselves of doing what God would have 
us do for the good of our fellow-men. Such is man's inmost 
principle or love. It is this that prompts to action ; in this are 
all our motives of action ; and according to the intensity and 
permanence of this are our efficiency and continuance of ac- 
tion. We conclude therefore, that love is the active principle 
in the Divine Being. In other words, we conclude that the 
active principle in God is an infinite conatus, endeavour and 
effort to make, sustain and bless beings formed out of himself, 
by imparting to them gratuitously from himself all that is 
suited to make them eternally happy in conjunction with him- 
self from reciprocal affection. This principle undoubtedly 
prompts all the divine action. And, therefore, we mean this 
principle, when we say the active principle in God is love. 

Again, our love is that principle in us which generates all 
our affections and thoughts, and all the activity consequent on 
these. The whole mind and body are a complex of faculties 
and forms of use produced from the love and so reacting upon 

9* 



90 WHAT ARE THE THREE 

it as to serve and gratify it in the attainment of its ends. Thus, 
as our love produces all things of our activity, it may be con- 
sidered, and virtually is, the father in respect to the other 
principles of our being. Therefore, we suppose that love is the 
generative principle in God. And thus we conclude that the 
divine love is the principle in the Divine Being, which, in the 
Sacred Scriptures, is called the father. 

The word of God properly so called — that is, the word which 
Jehovah himself uttered by the mouths of his prophets and by 
the mouth of his own truth incarnate — cannot be supposed to 
say, in just so many conventional terms, that his active princi- 
ple is love. This is precluded by the peculiar style in which 
the Word of God is written. This style, requires that spiritual 
and divine things should be expressed by correspondential forms 
and sensible images. Therefore, we cannot expect to find 
truths taught in the Word dogmatically. But dogmatic truths 
must be deduced from its literal sense as seen in the light of its 
spirit. For the Lord's words " are spirit, and are life ;" and 
therefore, we can see their true literal meaning only when we 
understand them from their spirit and life. Hence to ascertain 
from the Word what the essential divine principles are, we must 
look through its letter up to its spiritual sense. Now, accord- 
ing to this sense, we can learn what are the divine constituent 
principles from our text. 

In our text we learn that, in the beginning was the word, and 
the word was God, and in him was life. Thus we see that 
there are two distinct principles — the word, and the life within 
him. It is also said in the context, that by the word all things 
were made, and without him was not any thing made that was 
made. 

Now, if there was life in the word, and the word made all 
things, the word must have made all things from the life with- 
in him. Thus the life must be the active principle of the word, 
and the word was God. From our text, therefore, it appears 
that the active principle of God is life. 

Recollect, now, that in the Sacred Writings the form is used 
to signify the essence, the effect to signify the cause, that which 



CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY? 91 

is produced to signify that which produces, and you will under- 
stand by the term life that which is the essence or producing 
cause of life. Now what is the essence or producing cause of 
life, if it be not love ? Love is the essence of our life, why 
then is it not the essence of the divine life ? We suppose that 
it is ; and therefore conclude from our text that the active prin- 
ciple of God is love. 

This conclusion is confirmed by John, in his First Epistle, 
iv. 16, where he expressly says, " God is love ; and he that 
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." The 
active principle of the Deity, which in the Sacred Scriptures is 
called the father, is, then, divine love. 

Thus we prove from the Sacred Scriptures themselves that 
the term father which they use in speaking of the Divine Being, 
does not denote a divine person, but a divine principle, namely, 
the principle of divine love, which, as being an infinite and 
eternal end to action in him, is consequently the active principle 
of God. 

What now, in the second place, is the divine reactive prin- 
ciple 1 A principle is called reactive because it so reciprocates 
the energies of an active tendency within it, as to bring the pur- 
poses of that active tendency into effect. The acting principle 
is an endeavour or a tendency to action, and the reacting prin- 
ciple is a plane, or form, which furnishes to this tendency the 
means of coming into action. Thus steam is an active power, 
and the resistance of machinery is a reactive power. Steam 
is an expansive energy, and the machinery of a steam engine 
is a mechanical form so reacting on that energy as to give to 
it a propulsive effect. Again, the whole body of man is a human 
machine, so reacting upon his moral and mental faculties as to 
effectuate the purposes of his will. Thus the arm is a form so 
reciprocating the tendencies of the will as to write, to sew, and 
to perform all those manual operations which are necessary to 
the various purposes of life. The reactive principle, then, is 
that by which the active principle operates. Hence, in our- 
selves, it is that by which our love operates : and this, in gene- 
ral, is our thought, our intelligence and our wisdom, or, in one 



92 WHAT ARE THE THREE 

word, the form of our will. We reason, therefore, that the 
divine reactive principle is divine wisdom, or the form of the 
divine will. 

This rational deduction is supported by the Sacred Scriptures. 
For the heavens and the earth are the handy-work of God ; and 
(Ps. civ. 24) it is said, " In wisdom hast thou made all thy 
works." — (Ps. cxxxvi. 5,) " To him that by wisdom made the 
heavens." — (Jer. x. 12,) " He established the world by his wis- 
dom." — "The sea is his, and his hand formed the dry land," 
(Ps. xcv. 5.) — " Before me there was no God formed, neither 
shall there be after me," (Isa. xliii. 10.) — " God himself/brmec/ 
the earth — "Reformed it to be inhabited," (Isa. xlv. 18.) — " God 
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he 
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the 
worlds ; who is the brightness of his glory, and the express 
image of his substance," (Heb. i. 2. 3 ;) and " who, being in 
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God," 
(Phil. ii. 6 ;) " in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and 
knowledge," (Col. ii. 3) — so as to be emphatically " the power 
of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. i. 24.) 

Thus the reactive principle in the Deity is wisdom or the 
form of the divine substance, which is the divine essence, or 
the divine will. 

Now, our wisdom is formed by the truth we know and 
practise. Thus our wisdom is truth. Hence, we conclude that 
the divine wisdom is divine truth. 

This conclusion is supported by our text. " In the begin- 
ning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word 
was God." — " All things were made by liim" (v. 3.) Thus, as 
it is here said by the word were all things made, and it is 
elsewhere said that the Lord by wisdom made his works, 
hence the Lord's word and wisdom are synonymous. But the 
Lord Jesus, in addressing the father, (John, xvii. 17,) says, 
" Thy word is truth." Wherefore, God's wisdom is his truth. 
And thus truth is the divine reactive principle. Hence it is the 
same whether we say the divine reactive is wisdom, or the 
word, or truth. 



CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 93 

Again, we may remark that the effect of truth is light. By 
truth the mind is enabled spiritually to see. And that which 
enables us to see, we call light. Hence, as the effect is used 
in the Scriptures to signify the cause, light is used to signify 
truth. Thus in our text it is said, in the word was life, and 
the life was the light of men. Where, by light, truth is mani- 
festly meant. For it is most plain that men are enlightened 
by truth. 

On this subject the New Jerusalem teaches this express doc- 
trine : — " The divine sphere which proceeds from the Lord, 
and which is called divine truth, is universal, filling the uni- 
versal heaven and constituting the all of life therein. It 
appears there before the eyes as light, which not only 
illuminates the sight, but also the mind. It is the same sphere 
likewise which constitutes the understanding appertaining to 
man." (A. C. 9407.) 

Thus the effect or sphere of the divine wisdom is light. The 
life of the divine wisdom, it will be recollected is divine love ; 
and the effect or sphere of the divine love is heat. This is the 
cause of heat in heaven and in angelic minds. Love is the 
cause of heat in men too. For it is clearly seen that they 
grow hot or cold according to the presence or absence of love. 
And all love has its ultimate source in the divine love. Hence 
men have heat and consequent life from the divine love. This 
love, flowing into the souls of men, quickens them and gives 
activity to all their powers. And this activity is always pro- 
portioned to the intensity of the exciting cause. Thus, in 
proportion to the exciting influence of love, the understanding 
of man is active. When the love is quiescent, the understand- 
ing does not think at all; and the clearness and purity of its 
thought is always in the ratio of the intensity and purity of its 
affection. This then is what is meant by the life being the 
light of men : when the affections of men are purified and 
vivified by the quickening influences of divine love, they have 
a clear intellection and perception of truth. Hence the new 
church teaches, that, " When man is in good, and from good 
in truth, then he is elevated into that divine light which is 



94 



WHAT ARE THE THREE 



divine truth proceeding from the Lord, and more interiorly 
according to the quality and quantity of good." (A. C. 9407.) 

Here then we clearly see what is the divine active, and what 
is the divine reactive. The divine active is life, that is love ; 
and the divine reactive is light, that is wisdom. Hence it is 
that John says, in his First Epistle, i. 5, " God is light." You 
will recollect he says, in the passage already quoted from the 
same Epistle, (iv. 8, 16,) " God is love." In these two declara- 
tions he evidently alludes to two fundamental constituent prin- 
ciples of God : for the constituent principles of God are God 
himself. Hence two of the constituent principles of God are 
love and light : or, as light is truth and truth is wisdom, they 
are love and wisdom. 

Now, as we have seen, our wisdom is generated by our love ; 
because the life is the light of men. Hence our wisdom has 
its quality and nature determined by our love ; reflects and re- 
presents our love ; and is the express image of our love. Our 
wisdom is an intellectual form, which, existing from our love as 
an essence, may be said to be in the bosom of our love, and, 
by manifesting its nature and its qualities, brings it forth to 
view. Thus our wisdom is a propagated form of our love, or 
is an image and likeness of our love begotten from itself. 
Hence our wisdom is the son of our love. We conclude, 
therefore, that the divine wisdom is that principle in the Divine 
Being which the Sacred Scriptures call the son. Indeed, there 
can be no doubt of this. For the word, which is the same as 
the divine wisdom, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and 
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the 
father. And John expressly " bare record that this is the son 
of God." (verse 34.) 

Having, then, ascertained the divine active and reactive prin- 
ciples to be love and wisdom, it follows that the third divine 
principle is the sphere or influence of these two. It is the sphere 
of the divine operation. It is the breath of Jehovah breathing 
into the nostrils of man the breath of lives. It is the life of 
divine love manifesting itself by divine wisdom in the works of 
creation, preservation, providence, redemption, and salvation. 
And this may be called divine use. It is in fact the divine ac- 



CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 95 

tion, and therefore is the breath, the life, the spirit of God. 
And hence it is called, in the Sacred Scriptures, the hoiy ghost 
or spirit. For the greek word which is rendered ghost or spirit, 
means wind and breath ; and the divine breath is the proceeding 
divine sphere, which is God's spirit. 

The breath of God in the natural or material world is evi- 
dently the air or wind, as composed of the atmosphere and its 
currents. For this is that in the material world which cor- 
responds to his breath in the spiritual world. From the 
sun's three atmospheres, and from the earth's three atmo- 
spheres thence proceeding, in indefinite combinations, all 
material things are produced, comparatively as water is 
formed from the combination of oxygen and hydrogen 
gasses. And this is proved by the fact that all material sub- 
stances, when decomposed by the compound blow pipe, pass up 
and off into vaporous, aerial, etherial, or auriai substances. 
Thus the breath of God as the air or atmosphere, produces all 
material things. And when we see how necessary to material 
existence are the currents in the atmosphere — when we see that 
stagnation of the air, as a calm on the sea, leads to putrescency 
in the sea's waters, for want of the motion which is necessary 
to their sweetness, and which motion is produced by the agita- 
tions of the wind — when we see that stagnation of the air, undis- 
turbed by the concussive effects of thunder and lightning, leads 
to the death of all animal and human existence, by the noxious 
miasmata and pestilential vapours thence produced — when we see 
how the life of our bodies, and all animal life is sustained by 
the oxygen of the air — how combustion is kept up by it, 
whereby the elaborations of science, art, manufacture and culi- 
nary work are carried on for the varied use, support, comfort 
and delight of man — when we see too that this oxygen imbibed 
by vegetable forms and given out in day time, compensates for 
the destruction of the vital principle of the air which combus- 
tion and human and animal respiration is incessantly producing 
— when, I say, we see all this, we must surely discern that that 
which gives life to the material world is the breath of God — is 
wind breathed from his divine mouth into the nostrils of the 



96 WHAT ARE THE THREE 

material creation and imparting to it the breath of its lives. 
And thus we see, in an image, the law of sustentation for the 
spiritual creation, namely, the breath of Jehovah, as divine 
truth, with divine good in it, coming down from heaven, and 
giving life unto the world. The descent on the day of Pente- 
cost was " as a mighty rushing wind" — corresponding in the 
spiritual world to those gusts of wind which purify the air and 
give material life and health to the material world. It is highly 
probable that the saxon word ghost [gift from gape] originally 
signified gust ; and therefore the term holy ghost, as applied to 
the Divine Being, would literally mean the holy gust — the 
afflatus of God's divine breath, by which reformation and re- 
generation are conveyed to the soul, and thus spiritual vitality 
and health are given to the spiritual and moral universe. 

Moreover, truth is that which proceeds from good and is 
operative in the regeneration and salvation of man. Therefore, 
(Ps. lvii. 3,) it is said, " God shall send forth his mercy and 
his truth." — " Mercy and truth shall go before thy face." (Ps. 
Iviii. 14.) — "Send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead 
me." (Ps. xliii. 3.) — " All his works are done in truth." (Ps. 
xxxiii. 4.) And that truth, as the operative principle of God in 
the regeneration and salvation of men, is, every where in the 
New Testament, called the holy spirit, has been very fully 
shown in our former discourses. 

The third principle in the Deity, then, is the operation of 
truth from good, or wisdom from love, in the works of creation, 
redemption and salvation. And this is divine use. 

Wherefore, the three principles which are in and constitute 
the one God, are, divine love, divine wisdom and divine use. 
Love acts, wisdom reacts, and the result of this action and re- 
action is use, which is a creating activity that produces all 
inferior existences. And as all existences bear the impress of 
the hand which made them, hence every existence has the three- 
fold principle of action, reaction and efficient result. In the 
divine love are ends, in the divine wisdom are causes, and in 
the divine use are effects. And this is the reason that there are 
in every existence which meets our observation, end, cause and 



CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 97 

effect. And as end, cause and effect are one, or as essence, 
form and odour are one, or as soul, body and activity are one — 
so are divine love, divine wisdom and divine use one : and as 
end, cause and effect are distinct, so are divine love, divine 
wisdom and divine use distinct. So too, and in no other way, 
are the father, the son and the holy ghost distinct. And as no 
one created thing can exist without its three constituent princi- 
ples of end, cause and effect, so neither can the one God exist 
without his three constituent principles of love, wisdom and 
use. For take away either of these, and the others would be 
nonentities. 

These three constituent principles may be called the essen- 
tial qualities of the Divine Being. And as in created being 
quality cannot exist out of a subject, so we reason that in un- 
created being divine quality cannot exist out of a divine subject. 
And the subject in which the divine qualities inhere is the per- 
son of God. And the three essential qualities of love, wisdom 
and use inhere in and constitute the one person of God, just as 
the three essential qualities of will, understanding and activity 
inhere in and constitute the one person of man. In the 
next discourse of this series we shall show that these three 
essential qualities of God are in the person Jesus Christ. 

We have thus, in our peculiar way, illustrated the scripture 
doctrine of the trinity. And whatever else' may be said of it, 
we are persuaded it cannot be thought obnoxious to the charge 
of irrationality. Indeed, we never yet have met a candid per- 
son, of any denomination, who, on having this doctrine thus 
presented to him, did not acknowledge it to be highly rational 
or plausible. Why then is it not adopted 1 

One would think that those who have been taught to believe 
in the doctrine of a trinity, and yet have never been able to 
understand how three could make one, would be glad to have 
this matter cleared up to them: more especially, when their 
church has been so heavily and so successfully assailed on this 
point by Unitarians. Yet, on hearing it, they either reject it at 
once, simply because it was not suggested by themselves ; or, at 

10 



98 WHAT ARE THE THREE 

first admitting it, they afterwards give it up, when they discern 
the consequences to which it leads. 

The truth is, as we said on setting out, that the whole of 
theology and religion rests on the idea which is conceived of 
God. And hence, to alter essentially the idea of God, is to 
subvert the whole theological system which is based upon it. 

Now the whole of the most prevalent theology of the present 
day is founded upon the notion of God as three separate and 
distinct persons. Consequently, the idea which we entertain of 
God as one person must be subversive of that theology. Hence 
our doctrine of the trinity — though so consonant with Scripture, 
reason and common sense — is pertinaciously rejected. How- 
ever readily this truth is assented to at first, it is at length seen 
that it militates against some darling distinguishing tenet, which 
cannot be given up on any account. It is seen, for instance, 
that, if God be only one person, then the second person could 
not die in man's stead to appease the wrath of the first person ; 
and thus the whole system of a vicarious sacrifice falls to the 
ground : and to give up this, would be to relinquish all the 
hopes which the natural man so fondly cherishes of getting to 
heaven without the sacrifice of his natural loves in keeping the 
the commandments from spiritual affection. Any one who has 
experienced any thing of the nature of true self-denial, knows 
how difficult it is to give up self in our religious opinions as , 
well as in our personal and worldly pleasures. It is indeed like 
plucking one's heart out. Hence we do not wonder that our 
doctrines are so reluctantly embraced by those who have been 
initiated and partly confirmed in the doctrines of the old church. 
Nay, it is much more a matter of surprise that so many em- 
brace them as do. "No man can enter into a strong man's 
house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, 
and then he will spoil his goods." The strong man is the un- 
derstanding of the false, and the house of this man is a will and 
practice conformed to this understanding. The man who is to 
enter this house and spoil this strong man's goods is the Lord 
as to truth, who cannot enter into the will of man, and bring it 



CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 99 

and all its principles into subjection to himself, until the precon- 
ceived opinions, the false persuasions, and the darling tenets of 
his understanding, are given up and renounced. How little 
likely is it, then, that the Lord in his new church can be readily 
received by those who are confirmed in the doctrines of the old 
church ! 

But still, the truth must be preached, whether men will hear 
or whether they will forbear. We cannot, on the peril of our 
souls, do any thing but preach the truth, and leave it to do its 
own peculiar and thorough work — to divide between the joints 
and the marrow, and to search the thoughts and intents of the 
heart. And happy shall we all be, if we are in that state indi- 
cated by the Lord when he says, " Blessed is he whosoever shall 
not be offended in me." 



Wc. 



SERMON VI 



MATT. XXVIII. 18, 19. 



" And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto 
me in heaven and on earth ; go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, and of the son, and 
of the holy ghost." 

In the preceding discourse, we endeavoured to show, both 
from the Word and from reason, what are the three divine 
principles, or the trinity, which constitute God. Our course of 
reasoning was briefly this. All things have been created by 
God, and bear in some degree his image and likeness. This 
is especially the case with man, who, being a microcosm, is 
a miniature of the whole material creation. Therefore, the 
essential principles of man's being are in an infinite degree the 
essential principles of the Divine Being. Now, as far as our 
knowledge extends, all things, including man, have three con- 
stituent principles of their existence, namely, an active principle, 
a reactive principle, and the result of these, which is a spheri- 
cal principle : and we proved, from Scripture and from reason, 
that the divine active is love, the divine reactive is wisdom, and 
the divine sphere is use. Hence we inferred that divine love, 
divine wisdom and divine use are signified in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures by the terms father, son and holy ghost. 

The next point in the new-church view of the Lord to which 
attention is to be directed, is, that these three divine principles 
are in the one person, Jesus Christ, so as to constitute him God 
alone. This is the most peculiar doctrine of the New Jerusalem, 
which runs through and characterizes her whole theology, and 
which most especially distinguishes her from every other church. 
It is meet, therefore, that we should discuss this doctrine fully. 



THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY Iff JESUS CHRIST. 10! 

It is usual to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ by demon* 
strating that the attributes of God are ascribed to him in the 
Sacred Scriptures. This, perhaps, is proper as a popular mode 
of proving this fundamental truth ; and we shall adopt it in our 
next discourse. We shall therein show that Jesus Christ is 
God alone, because there are ascribed to him the divine at- 
tributes of life in himself, unchangeableness, infinity, eternity,, 
omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence, together with the 
creation and sustentation of all things. 

But the attributes of God are not God himself. God himself 
is constituted by his substance, his form and his work. His 
substance is his active principle, his form is his reactive prin- 
ciple, and his work is his spherical or influential principle. 
His substance is love, his form is wisdom, and his work is use. 
His substance is the father, his form is the son, and his work is 
the holy ghost. And the complex subject or bodily manifesta- 
tion of these three divine principles, is the sole person of Deity, 
and therefore the only God. 

In order, therefore, to show that Jesus Christ is this only 
God, we must show from the Scriptures that these three con- 
stituent divine principles are in him ; which we shall do by 
showing that he is synonymous, in name and person, with the 
three terms father, son and holy ghost, and with what is signi- 
fied by them. 

This is clearly inferable from our text. You will observe, 
from the context, that " the eleven disciples went away 
into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 
* * # And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All 
power is given unto me in heaven and on earth, go ye, there- 
fore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost. 

Now, in commenting on this passage, we wish you to observe 
particularly what meaning there is in this word therefore. But, 
to feel the force of this word, we must discern somewhat of 
the spiritual sense of the passage. 

Bear in mind, what has been remarked heretofore, that tho 
10* 



102 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 

Lord's words were uttered, not merely to give verbal com- 
mands, — though, in their natural sense, they ought to have the 
utmost force of such commands, — but also to enunciate and to 
give form and fixedness to spiritual and eternal truth ; and you 
will then see that whatever the Lord says, is a declaration of 
what eternally is as regards himself, and of whatever is or will 
be with regard to man. Now the Lord assumed human nature, 
and was manifest in the flesh, to redeem and save mankind. 
To do this, he had first to redeem and save man's nature in 
himself, from the evils into which man had fallen, and then to 
make it the medium of imparting to man a regenerated nature. 
Therefore, by a process of glorification, which is the type of 
man's regeneration, he made human nature in himself divine; 
that is, he made it the unmodifying subject and fully corre- 
spondent medium of the divine attributes. By this process, the 
human nature which Jehovah assumed, became the living tem- 
ple of the living God. Hereby the living God was made mani- 
fest. And now and ever " the blessed and only Potentate, the 
King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, 
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom 
no man hath seen nor can see," is shown to us, just in the de- 
gree, and only in the degree, that the Lord Jesus Christ, by his 
appearing in our hearts and lives through regeneration, " shows 
us plainly of the father," (John, xvi. 25.) Thus, by that pro- 
cess of glorification whereby the human nature of Jehovah was 
made divine, the whole godhead, the three essential principles 
of Deity — the father, the son and the holy ghost, were made 
to dwell in the Lord Jesus Christ bodily. And when this pro- 
cess of glorification was completed by his " ascending up far 
above all heavens, that he might fill all things," (Eph. iv. 10,) 
then the way was opened for the descent of divine influences 
to men. For the operation of divine love and divine wisdom 
in redeeming and saving men is the holy ghost ; and it is said, 
(John, vii. 39,) " the holy ghost was not yet given, because 
Jesus was not yet glorified." Hence, when Jesus was glorified^ 
the holy ghost was given. And it should be well noted, that 
these words were spoken in reference to that " spirit which they 



ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 103 

who believe on him should receive :" thus showing, both that 
the holy ghost is that spirit which is received from Jesus Christ, 
and that it could not be received, — of course could not be 
given, — until it proceeded from him. But when it was so 
given and received, it was a comforter which Jesus sent unto 
his disciples, which received of his and showed it unto them, 
and which thus led them into all truth. 

Hence it appears that the spirit of truth is in and proceeding 
from Jesus Christ. And as this spirit of truth manifests to his 
disciples Jesus who is " the truth," it must also show, in him, 
to his disciples, the good, for good dwells in truth as an essence 
in its form, and truth presents good to view as a form brings to 
view its essence. Thus when the holy spirit shows Jesus as the 
truth to his disciples, it also shows to them the father, for good 
is the father of truth as an essence is the father of its form. 
Hence when Philip (John, xiv. 8) said to the Lord, " show us the 
father and it sufficeth us, Jesus said unto him, Have I been so 
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? 
he that hath seen me hath seen the father." Wherefore, when 
the holy ghost opens the hearts of men to call Jesus Lord, — to 
see that he is the son, the truth, — it also enables them to per- 
ceive that he is the father, the good: for through him, as the di- 
vine truth, the divine goodness is manifested in their hearts : 
and thus the son, who is in the bosom of the father, brings him 
forth to view. Wherefore, when Jesus was fully glorified, the 
father, the son and the holy ghost were all in him, and the way 
was opened for those divine principles to descend from him to 
men ; and, by gradually restamping upon them the divine 
image and likeness, to save them from their sins. 

Now the Gospel by Matthew, as well as by the other evange- 
lists, is a book in which this process of glorification is described. 
The close of the book treats of the close of the work. And, there- 
fore, the words of our Lord in the text are, spiritually, an enuncia- 
tion of the state of things incident and consequent upon his entire 
glorification. For when the human nature of Jehovah was 
fully glorified, it was entirely one with himself; it was his right 
arm ; it was the body in which he dwelt and by which he acted, 



104 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 

He, therefore, did not give the spirit by measure unto it 
Wherefore, it was full of the spirit of might, majesty and do- 
minion. Hence, in the conclusion of that book which describes 
his glorification, Jesus comes to his disciples in Gallilee, — in a 
gentile state, in which the mind is not perverted by false doc- 
trines, but is in a state of simple and teachable good, — and 
speaks unto them, saying, " All power is given unto me in 
heaven and on earth ;" thus declares the fact that he was so 
fully glorified as to have in him the divine attribute of omnipo- 
tence: and, as a consequence of this, commands them to go and 
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost: which com- 
mand spiritually signified, that Jehovah, by the assumption and 
glorification of humanity, had acquired all power to impart 
spiritual truths to mankind for their regeneration in all the three 
discrete degrees of the human mind. In other words, it de- 
notes that in consequence of the Lord's full glorification, the 
divine influences of love, wisdom and use are to be imparted 
from him through the truths, which his apostles represented and 
taught, to well disposed men of all names and professions. 
Hence, after announcing that all power is given unto him in 
heaven and on earth, he says, "Go ye, therefore, and make 
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost; teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." By 
observing whatsoever things he had commanded them, they 
would conform themselves to his commandments; and by such 
conformity they would receive from him the influences of the 
divine love, the divine wisdom and the divine sphere of use- 
fulness — which three divine principles are personified in the 
Word as the father, the son and the holy spirit: and thus they 
would be baptized in the name, that is, in the quality of those 
three divine principles, and so cleansed from all contrary de- 
filements. 

The apostles, to whom the Lord gave the command of the text* 
represented all the truths of his church in the complex. These 
truths, when received and practised in spiritual faith, form the? 



ARE IN" JESUS CHRIST. 105 

image and likeness of Jesus Christ in the soul — so that the soul 
reflects, as in a mirror, his love, his wisdom and his usefulness. 
And thus when truths come to us from the Lord in the doctrines 
of his church, they baptize us into the Lord's death and 
raise us again from the dead into his life, so as to ingenerate 
in us the quality of the Lord's internal, interior and ultimate 
principles, which are called in the Sacred Scriptures the father, 
the son and the holy spirit. 

Hence the Lord's commanding his apostles to baptize all 
nations in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the 
holy spirit, as a consequence of all power having been given 
unto him in heaven and on earth, is an evidence that all the 
divine principles which are signified by the terms father, son 
and holy spirit are dwelling bodily in him, so as to constitute 
him one divine person, and invest him with all the properties 
of Deity. 

Now, our argument from this passage of the Word is, that 
the apostles to whom the Lord addressed it, must have under- 
stood what the Lord meant by the terms father, son and holy 
ghost ; and, if they had understood him to mean by those 
terms three separate and distinct persons in the godhead, that 
they, in obeying his command, would have baptized into the three 
separate and distinct names of father, and of son, and of holy 
ghost. But, in fact, although the Lord had expressly command- 
ed them to baptize in those three names, still there is no record 
of their ever having baptized in any other name than simply 
Jesus Christ. 

Wherever the rite of baptism is spoken of in the Acts of 
the Apostles, we see the truth of this assertion. For example, in 
the second chapter, verse thirty-eight, " Peter said, Repent, and 
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ." 
So, in the nineteenth chapter, verse five, it is said, certain disci- 
ples at Ephesus "were baptized in the name of the Lord 
Jesus" When the people of Samaria, who had been bewitched 
by Simon the sorcerer, had " believed the apostle Philip preach- 
ing the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name 
of Jesus Christ," and were in consequence " baptized both men 



106 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 

and women," it is said " the holy ghost was fallen upon none 
of them : only they were baptized in the name of the Lord 
Jesus :" but " they received the holy ghost" when the apostles 
" laid their hands on them." (Acts, viii. 12 — 17.) Peter com- 
manded the Gentiles whom he had converted "to be baptized in 
the name of the Lord." (Acts, x. 48.) And Paul speaks (Rom. 
vi. 3) of being " baptized into Jesus Christ" 

Hence we conclude, that the apostles did not understand the 
Lord to mean by the three terms father, son and holy ghost, 
so many persons ; but, on the contrary we conclude that in their 
view the one name Jesus Christ was entirely synonymous with 
those three terms ; and that, as the one name Jesus Christ in- 
cluded the three names father, son and holy ghost, so the one 
person Jesus Christ is an individual embodyrrjent of all the 
divine principles or properties which those three names signified. 
For names are given to express qualities ; and hence the fact 
that the apostles substituted the one name Jesus Christ for the 
three names father, son and holy ghost, makes it clear that 
they must have regarded the person Jesus Christ as possessing 
all the divine qualities of the " Everlasting Father," of " the Son 
of God," and of " the Spirit of Truth." 

Wherefore, we conclude, from this text, that the three essential 
qualities of God, namely, the divine active, the divine reactive 
and the divine spherical principles, are in, and constituting, the 
one divine person, Jesus Christ : and, of course, that Jesus 
Christ is the only God. 

Hence we can see with what strict propriety the angels could 
direct that Jesus, as the word made flesh, should be called God- 
with-us. We can see with what propriety John, too, could say 
that in Jesus was life, that is, divine love ; and that he was 
"the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the 
world," or the divine truth or wisdom: hence that he was full 
of "grace and truth;" for fullness of grace is infinity of love, 
and fullness of truth is infinity of wisdom. And we can see, 
moreover, with what truth John could say, (in iii. 24,) that 
" God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him" — thus that 
Jesus has in himself the spirit in an immeasurable and so in 



ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 107 

an infinite degree. Moreover, we can see why Jesus, when, 
as it is recorded in John, xx. 22, " breathed on his disciples," 
said, " Receive ye the holy ghost," — thus clearly indicating that 
from him, as the truth itself, proceeds the sphere of truth, 
which is the spirit of truth, or the holy spirit. For all these are 
only so many confirmations of the truth which we have de- 
duced from our present text, that in Jesus Christ is divine love, 
which is the father — as well as divine wisdom, which is the 
son — and that in and proceeding from him is the truth, and the 
spirit of it, which is the sphere of divine operation, or divine 
usefulness. 

The same doctrine is strikingly confirmed by that remarkable 
saying of Paul, which we have before quoted, that " in Christ 
dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily;" for this most 
expressly asserts that all divine properties whatsoever are in 
him, so that he must of course possess the three essential prin- 
ciples of Deity. Paul expressly calls him, too, the power of 
God and the wisdom of God," (1 Cor. i. 24) — asserting, in 
just so many words, that, " being in the form of God, he thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God," (Phil. ii. 6) — that he is 
"the express image of God's substance" (Heb. i. 2,) and 
says, that " by him were all things created that are in heaven 
and that are in earth, visible and invisible — all things were 
created by him and for him — thus asserting that Jesus Christ 
was not only the instrumental cause, but also the end, of crea- 
tion. In declaring then that Jesus Christ had in him all the 
fullness of the godhead, that he was the power and wisdom of 
God, that he is the form of God and the express image of his 
substance in such a degree as to be equal with God, and that he 
is both the cause and the end of creation — how clearly does 
Paul show that Jesus Christ is God himself! Well, then, might 
he speak of him as "the same yesterday, to-day and for ever," 
(Heb. xiii. 8 ;) and well might he call him " God over all, blessed 
for ever," (Rom. ix. 5 :) for he must have known that Jesus 
Christ himself had said, " Before Abram was I AM" (John, viii. 
58) — thus had an essential and eternal existence ; and of course 
is God. 



108 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 

The truth, that Jesus Christ is God, because he is possessed 
of the three essential properties of Deity, we shall consider as 
established. We might prove it further by the most abundant 
testimony from all parts of the Word. But this one passage 
makes this point of our faith clear enough, and were we to 
bring forward a too great multiplicity of corroborative pas- 
sages, we should bat darken it with excess of light. In our 
next discourse, we shall go on to prove the same truth, by 
showing that Jesus Christ is possessed of all the divine attri- 
butes, and will now call your attention to two particular texts 
of Scripture which seem to us very forcibly to controvert the 
far too prevalent notion that Jesus Christ is a mere man. 

In former discourses, we have more particularly traced the 
difference between the Newjerusalemites and the Trinitarians, 
as to the doctrine of the Lord. In this and the last discourses, 
you have seen how entirely and widely we differ from the 
Unitarians. There is not time now to state specifically what 
are the distinct and the distinguishing points of the unitarian 
faith. Indeed it would be difficult to do this, if we had ever so 
much time. For Unitarians are much more remarkable for 
what they do not believe, than for what they do. They are far 
more acute in discerning the absurdities of the trinitarian faith 
than in presenting convincingly the truths of a contrary faith 
of their own. They are far more powerful in demolishing the 
strong holds of trinitarian error than in building up any pecu- 
liar temple of unitarian truth. The common bond that seems 
to hold them together is, opposition to some other sect, or ne- 
gation of some other faith. When they come to consider what 
tenets of positive faith there are which all Unitarians as a com- 
mon body are bound to admit and hold, there appears to arise 
division among them. There are no articles or confessions of 
faith which Unitarians are required to subscribe, or to make, on 
penalty of exclusion. The Bible in its mere literal sense is 
their only rule of faith and catechism ; and every one is left 
free to interpret it for himself. Hence a good deal of diversity 
of opinion prevails among persons of that denomination. But 
the most general division of them is into Arians, who hold that 



ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 109 

Christ is a super-angelic, though still a created, being, and So- 
cinians, who maintain that he is a mere man, in no respect dif- 
fering from other men, except that he is more highly gifted of 
God. 

Now this position, that Jesus Christ is only a super-angelic, 
or a mere, man, is the very antipode of our faith. And the 
first argument against this position, which we shall now present 
to your consideration, is derived from John's hesitation to bap- 
tize Jesus Christ when he had come to him to be baptized. 

John was too well aware of the character of Jesus to regard 
him as a mere mau. He knew that " He who cometh from 
above is above all" (iii. 31.) Knowing, in fact, that he was 
God-with-us, how could he do otherwise than hesitate to baptize 
him ? And the fact that he did so hesitate, is as direct a testi- 
mony as he could give to the divinity of Jesus Christ. For had 
Jesus been a mere man, a prophet, or a messenger sent from 
God, then John need not have hesitated to perform upon him 
the rite of baptism : since, of this same John, Jesus says, (Matt. 
xi. 9,) "But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? Yea, 
1 say unto you, and more than a prophet. 1 " And, again, (verse 
11,) " Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of 
women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." 
Hence, as John the Baptist was more than a prophet, and 
greater than any born of women, he need not have hesitated to 
baptize a prophet, or any mere agent or messenger of God that 
was born of a woman. The fact, therefore, that John did hesi- 
tate to baptize Jesus, proves that he was more than a prophet, 
or a messenger sent from God, or a mere man. 

John, moreover, expressly says of Jesus, (Matt. iii. 11,) "He 
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not 
worthy to bear" — (whose shoe-latchets I am not worthy to un- 
loose, John, i. 27) : — and if John is more than a prophet, and 
greater than all born of women, and yet is not worthy to un- 
loose the shoe-latchet of the J^ord Jesus, how, then, can the 
Lord Jesus be a mere man, a mere prophet, or a mere messen- 
ger sent from God 1 Does not all this show that he is, as John 
asserts, in a peculiar and an emphatic sense, the Son of God 

11 



110 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 

(ch. i. 34) ? Does it not prove that he is " the word which 
was with God, and was God" 1 and which, being made flesh, 
" dwelt among us" ? And thus, does it not prove that he is God 
with us ? Hence, as the Divine Being is one and indivisible, 
that he is God himself, the very and the only God ? 

The second passage which we would advance to rebut th*^ 
position that Jesus Christ is only a super-angelic being, or that 
he is nothing more than a man, is John, vi. 62, where our Lord 
says, " What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up 
where he was before ?" Jesus put this question to some of his 
disciples when they had murmured at his saying, "I am the 
living bread which came down from heaven:" and therefore he, 
by this interrogatory, implied that he was originally in heaven 
before his coming down to earth. How strong a proof is this, 
then, that Jesus in his conception was not a mere man ! The 
Socinian asserts that Jesus was only the son of Joseph the car- 
penter. If this were true, then the beginning of his existence 
was in the moment of his conception; and the highest point to 
which he could ascend towards the origin of his being would be 
to his state in that conception. But it is clear that heaven could 
not have existed in the soul of Joseph the carpenter; and if the 
Lord had been only the son of Joseph, his soul would have been 
only the transcript of Joseph's soul. But, as the Lord declares 
that he had an existence in heaven before his conception on 
earth, therefore he must have had an existence prior to his con- 
ception, and, consequently, could not have been in his origin a 
mere man. 

And that Jesus Christ was more than merely super-angelic, 
was in fact divine, in his origin, is clear from his intimating, as 
he does in chapter xvi. 27, 28, "that he came forth from God;" 
and from his expressly saying, " I came forth from the father, 
and came into the world ; again I leave the world, and go to 
the father." These passages show that the Lord not only had 
an existence before he came into the world, but that the origin 
of his existence was so far above that of the angels, as to be in 
the very divine emanating sphere of Jehovah. Hence he had 
his origin in God himself; so that John could say that he, in 



ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. Hi 

his beginning, was not only the word which was with God, but 
the word which was God. The emanating sphere of Jehovah, 
descending as an operative divine energy into the virgin, Mary, 
upon earth, was that holy spirit from which Jesus was begotten 
a material embodyment of all latent divine properties — so that, 
when born into this world, the " holy child Jesus" could be 
" the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," 
upon whose shoulders the government of the whole universe 
might depend. On this account it was that the Magi worshiped 
him, though a child, as God, and, in the gifts which they gave 
him, ascribed to him, correspondentially and representatively, 
the possession and source of all divine things. 

Hence it is manifest that Jesus Christ had an existence prior 
to his conception on earth, and that his origin was not merely 
super-angelic, but divine. And hence we can see with what 
propriety Paul should say of Jesus Christ that he is " the same 
yesterday, to-day and for ever" — which he could not have said, 
with any kind of propriety, if Jesus had not had an existence 
prior to his conception and birth in time and space, or if he had 
not existed u from everlasting to everlasting." But this truth 
is resistlessly set forth by those words already quoted, "Jesus 
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM" 
— than which there cannot be a more direct and unequivocal 
assertion of the eternity and divinity of the being of Jesus 
Christ. 

Wherefore, the notion that Jesus Christ is a mere man, or a 
mere super-angelic being, is false : and it becomes the whole 
christian world to regard him as a divine man, as God-Man ; 
and to ascribe to him as such, "the kingdom, and the power, 
and the glory for ever." For he is the arm of Jehovah, and 
has, therefore, "all power given unto him in heaven and on 
earth," so that he can in truth be called "the Almighty." (Rev. 
i. 8.) He is " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of 
the world" — that principle of divinely human innocence, which, 
so far as it is received by us, in our becoming regenerated into his 
image and likeness, takes away all the evils and falses of our ut- 
terly corrupt hereditary nature. And therefore we, in the words 



112 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 

of Holy Writ, should incessantly ascribe "Blessing, and honour, 
and glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb for ever and ever" — for there has been " given 
him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, na- 
tions and languages should serve him:" and "his dominion 
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." To which the 
New Jerusalem especially sends up, in reverberated echoes 
from all her walls, the glad and glorious response — " Amen and 
Amen" 

Such is our proof from the Word that Jesus Christ is the 
embodyment and radiant form of the three essential divine prin- 
ciples, so as to be the only God. And if he is the only God, 
then he should be the sole object of all christian worship. 
Why, then, is not he alone worshiped by all Christians as their 
God? 

In closing our last discourse, we animadverted rather freely 
upon Trinitarians on account of their rejecting the rational doc- 
trine of the trinity which the new church teaches. And we 
have here and elsewhere contrasted our views of the Lord with 
those of the Unitarians, as some may think, disparagingly. But 
let it not be supposed that we wish to attack and vituperate the 
views of others in propounding and defending our own. For 
whenever we point out the errors of others, it is merely for the 
purpose of presenting our own views in such bold relief, that our 
hearers may more distinctly see what it is we believe. Heaven 
forbid that we should even desire to take from any others, that 
most precious privilege, which we claim to ourselves, of freely 
adopting, and honestly maintaining, what they sincerely believe 
to be the truth. And our religion, so far from teaching us to 
condemn all who do not agree in faith with us, expressly teaches 
us that the good of all denominations will be saved, and that, too, 
even by their false doctrines, provided they innocently believe 
those doctrines to be true. For the new church teaches, that, 
"whilst man is regenerating, he is let into combats against 
falses ; and in this case he is kept by the Lord in truth — but in 
that truth which he had persuaded himself to be truth, and from 



ARE IX JESUS CHRIST. 113 

this truth combat is waged against the false. Combat may be 
waged even from truth not genuine, provided it be such that by 
any means it can be conjoined with good ; and it is conjoined 
with good by innocence, for innocence is the medium of con- 
junction. Hence it is that they within the church may be 
regenerated by means of any doctrine whatever, but they espe- 
cially who are in genuine truths." (A. C. 6765.) 

Hence, though we may believe the doctrines of all the pre- 
vailing sects of the old church to be false, yet we can and do 
admit that there are many good people in all of them who 
honestly embrace those doctrines as the true ones. And while 
duty may compel us to expose their principles, still we leave 
them in the hands of Him whose tender mercies are over all his 
works — who well knows our frame, and who remembers that 
all, even the best of us, are but dust, are but the frail and erring 
subjects of sinful mortality. 

Jn the sight of God we are all nothing but sinners, and hence 
are all more or less in error. Even those who have the truth, 
see it but imperfectly, and too often mix it up and defile it with 
their inbred corruptions. It becomes none of us arrogantly to 
say to his fellow-man, stand aside, for I am holier than thou : 
but it becomes all humbly to acknowledge our ignorance and 
unworthiness, and to commend ourselves, as well as those who 
differ from us in opinion, to the care and guidance of Him in 
whose light alone we can see light, and whose life is that true 
light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world. 
He breaks not the bruised reed and quenches not the smoking 
flax — neither should we. Like him, we should not seek to 
force the conviction of unsuitable truth upon any, however great 
their errors, however low their state. 

Still, it is no charity in us to blind our eyes to errors because 
good people may be innocently in them. It is no part of true 
charity to confound error with truth, because error may be 
embraced innocently. True charity would lead us to discrimi- 
nate error and falsehood from truth, and to expose error and 
falsity for the good even of those who may be the innocent sub- 
jects of them. But when we have seemed to attack the views of 

11 * 



114 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 

others, our only aim has been to guard ourselves from their er- 
rors ; and though we would not be insensible to their good, and 
hence would not refuse to expose their errors for their good, still 
we would not rashly take away their errors before we are sure 
they are in a state to receive higher and truer views than those 
they now possess. 

While, therefore, we guard ourselves from the false principles 
of the well meaning professors of religion in the old church, we 
charitably leave those professors themselves in the hands of the 
Great Physician, who, mercifully regarding their infirmities, 
has placed them for a time in the faith which they now hold, 
as a spiritually dark chamber, that he may kindly temper the 
light of heaven to their diseased eyes. If the eye be evil, as it 
is when the understanding is consciously and rationally con- 
firmed in self-love and love of the world as principles of action, 
then indeed the whole body will be full of darkness which no 
light can dispel : and it was to those who possess such an eye, 
that we alluded in the conclusion of our last discourse. 

But an eye not evil may be unable to see in consequence of 
darkness arising from the mists of ignorance and the honest 
prejudices of erroneous education. And we hope there are 
many more than we are aware of, among all the existing sects 
of Christendom, who have an eye that is thus not evil. Upon 
all such, we doubt not that the Lord will, in his own good time, 
cause abundant light to arise, if, though they are thus sitting 
even in the valley of the shadow of death, they are nevertheless 
sincerely seeking and ardently desiring the truth. Most cer- 
tainly we do not doubt that all who really wish to go right, will 
be led right. There are many wayward children, wandering 
from their Heavenly Father like lost sheep : but he has come to 
seek and to save that which was lost, and all who are inwardly 
good children will, though they may now be lost, find their way 

home to him at last. 

Therefore, however few there may now be, who are prepared 

as yet to embrace this doctrine of the Lord which we preach ; 

still, as we are taught from heaven that it is true, we doubt no! 

it will ultimately be embraced by all the good. Hence we are 



ARE IN" JESUS CHRIST. 115 

not disposed to quarrel with those who differ with us. We 
know that the truth is hid from those who are not in a state to 
embrace it ; and we are fully aware that we cannot fight them 
into a better state. The holy spirit from on high alone can 
give sight to the blind and raise the dead to life. And as all 
who can be healed will be, we doubt not that, in the coming 
world, if not in this, there will be some of all nations, and kin- 
dreds, and people, and tongues — some of every denomination 
of religionists — who, clothed with white robes, and palms in 
their hands, will be heard saying, " Salvation to our God which 
sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb :" for " Thou art 
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for 
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure, they are and 
were created" ! Amen. 



SERMON VII 



MATTHEW, XXVIII. 18. 



" And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, Ail power is given unto 
me in heaven and on earth." 

We are now to prove from the Word, that Jesus Christ is 
God alone because he has ascribed to him the divine attributes. 

The attributes of Deity are, life in himself, eternity, infinity, 
omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, together with the 
creation and sustentation of all things. Now it will be con- 
ceded by all, that these attributes belong to the father, or the 
essential divinity: but the Lord Jesus says, (John, xvi. 15,) 
" All things that the father hath are mine." Therefore the at- 
tributes of the father must be those also of Jesus Christ. — In 
John, i. 1 — 4, it is said, " In the beginning was the word, and 
the word was with God, and the word was God. The same 
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him ; 
and without him was not any thing made that was made. In 
him was life ; and the life was the light of men :" this light 
John came to bear witness of, and says that " he was in the 
world, and the world was made by him :" and afterwards that 
the " word was made flesh and dwelt among us :" and he bare 
witness of him, and cried saying, " This was he of whom I 
spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me ; for he 
was before me ;" — thus clearly showing that Jesus, who came 
after him, was the word that was with God and was God, by 
whom all things were made, in whom was life, who was in the 
world, and who made the world. 

Hence, according to John, Jesus Christ has life in himself, is 
the creator of all things, and is God. At least John expressly 



THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 117 

ascribes to him the divine attribute of creation : for he says all 
things were made by the word. 

Paul also ascribes creation to Jesus, in Col. i. 16, " For by 
him," says he, " were all things created that are in heaven, and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible ; whether they be thrones, 
or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were crea- 
ted by him and for him." 

The Lord himself expressly says, too, (John, v. 26,) '-'as the 
father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have 
life in himself." There is no difference, the son, or humanity, 
has life in himself as the father, or essential divinity, has life in 
himself. 

From these passages of Scripture it is sufficiently clear that 
the attribute of essential life is ascribed to Jesus Christ. And 
as creation also is ascribed to him ; and as he is by fair impli- 
cation proved to be the word which was God ; he himself, 
therefore, is God. And if God, he possesses of course all di- 
vine attributes. 

But his eternity is expressly asserted by himself in John, viii. 
58 : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am." 
He thus assumed the title of Jehovah, who calls himself the 
lam. It should be observed, too, that the Jews took up stones 
to stone him for this saying : thus evidencing that they under- 
stood him to assume to himself this divine attribute of Jehovah. 
Paul also ascribes to him eternity and unchangeableness in 
Heb. xiii. 8, where he says, " Jesus Christ, the same yester- 
day, and to-day, and for ever." His omnipresence is shown 
by his own words, (Matt, xviii. 20,) " For where two or three 
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
them:" and (xxviii. 19, 20,) " Go ye, therefore, and make dis- 
ciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things what- 
soever I have commanded you : and lo, I am with you always, 
even unto the end of the world." His omniscience may be 
inferred from the fact "that he knew all men, and needed not 
that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man." 
(John, ii. 25.) Also by its being said in John, i. 47 — 49, "Jesus 
saw Nathaniel coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an 



118 ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 

Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! Natha»iej saith unto 
him, Whence knowest thou me ? Jesus answered and said 
unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under 
the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and saith unto 
him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God." You see the true import 
of the Lord's saying, from the effect which it had on Nathaniel. 
Doubtless divinity beamed from his eye and glowed in his coun- 
tenance as he spake. And his overpowering omniscient sphere 
wrested from the at first wondering but now adoring Nathaniel, 
the confession, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God !" That Jesus 
is possessed of omniscience may be further gathered from the 
account of his appearing to the doubting Thomas, recorded in 
John, xx. 19 — 28. You will observe that, when the Lord ap- 
peared the second time, he immediately, without any previous 
information derived from the other apostles, began to satisfy 
Thomas's doubts. Now how could he have known the doubts 
expressed by Thomas eight days before, and retained in his mind 
since, unless he had been omniscient and omnipresent ? That 
Thomas believed him possessed of these attributes, is evident 
from his exclamation, " My Lord, and my God !" Is it not 
evident from this that even the most doubting and external of 
the apostles, had an ocular, sensible, perceptive demonstration of 
the divinity of Jesus Christ ? — a demonstration which no powers 
of reasoning could resist, and which constrained even the most 
sensual to cry out, My Lord — my God ! This passage proves, 
beyond a reasonable doubt, that, the humanity of the Lord is 
itself divine : for, otherwise, such effects could not follow its 
mere presentation. Jesus Christ, then, is Lord and God, and 
as such must possess every divine attribute. 

But the Lord's own language in the Apocalypse, indicates, 
if possible, still more clearly, that he has all the attributes of 
God. He there says, (ch. i. 8,) " I am Alpha and Omega, the 
Beginning and the End : which is, and which was, and which 
is to come, the Almighty." Here he, if not in express language, 
at least in language which can bear no other import, claims to 
himself eternity, infinity, omnipresence, omniscience and omni- 
potence. You are aware that alpha and omega are the first 



ARE ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 119 

and last letters of the greek alphabet. Taken in the above 
connection, therefore, they must signify what is absolutely first 
and last : that is, absolute being through all its gradations. 
Now Jesus Christ is first and last in this sense, because Jeho- 
vah, or the essential divinity, is in him as a soul in a bodily 
form. For the essential divinity being in him as a soul, he has 
within him all first principles : and all ultimate principles being 
congregated in the bodily form of this soul, he has likewise in 
him all last principles. His essence is God, his form is man. 
And as the form can have nothing but what it derives from the 
essence, and is of a nature altogether correspondent to the es- 
sence, he is also God in ultimates as well as God in intimates. 
He is thus essential and actual being — lives in all life and ex- 
tends through all extent — is very and eternal God. He is the 
Beginning and the End — which is, and which was, and which 
is to come, the Almighty. These words need no comment. 
The commonest minds must understand their meaning and feel 
their force. They imply infinity; for such must be the mean- 
ing of beginning and ending when taken in an absolute sense. 
They imply eternity, for such is the manifest meaning of all 
time — present, past and future. They imply omniscience and 
omnipresence ; for these are the consequence of infinity and 
eternity. And they expressly assert omnipotence ; for they sav 
he is the Almighty. 

Nor can there be any doubt that it is Jesus Christ, or the 
Divine Humanity, which is speaking. For John afterwards 
describes his person, as " one like unto the Son of Man,"(ch. i. 
13 ;) and then says, (ch. i. 17,) " when 1 saw him, I fell at his 
feet as dead : and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto 
me, Fear not ; / am the first and the last." It was, then, this 
person, in a human form, like unto the Son of Man — all the 
principal parts of which form are described — who said, in the 
verse we first quoted, and again in the eleventh verse, " I am 
Alpha and Omega." Now it is this divine human form which 
we are to understand by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, then, is 
Alpha and Omega. 

There can be no doubt that John understood it thus : for in 



120 ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 

the first verse of the first chapter he says, " The revelation of 
Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his ser- 
vants things which must shortly come to pass ; and he sent and 
signified it by his angel unto his servant John." Now some 
minds may apprehend that John makes a distinction in this 
Verse between Jesus Christ and God ; and to such it may seem 
a matter of doubt whether Jesus Christ or God sent his angel 
unto John. But if we compare the sixth and sixteenth verses 
of the twenty-second chapter, doubt on this subject will vanish. 
In the sixth verse are these words : " And the Lord God of the 
holy prophets, sent his angel to show unto his servants the 
things which must shortly be done :" and in the sixteenth, " I 
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in 
the churches." From these two verses taken together, it is 
evident that Jesus and the Lord God of the holy prophets are 
one person ; and it amounts to the same thing whether God 
sent his angel or Jesus sent his angel. 

Observe too, in the seventh verse, immediately after the 
words, " And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his an- 
gel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be 
done" — these words, " Behold I come quickly :" which, evi- 
dently, in this connection, refer to the Lord God of the holy 
prophets. Then glance your eye to the twentieth verse, and 
read, " He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come 
quickly ;" and hear John add, " Amen, Even so come, Lord 
Jesus" — and you can have no doubt that John identified the 
Lord Jesus with the Lord God of the holy prophets, and hence 
must have regarded him as the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus 
Christ, therefore, is possessed of all divine attributes ; and, 
consequently, is very and eternal God. 

Now we presume there cannot be a doubt in the mind of any 
truly rational man, that the conclusion to which we have come 
is fairly deducible from the texts of Scripture brought forward ; 
and, therefore, that Jesus Christ has ascribed to him all the di- 
vine attributes in general. This point then is settled. And 
here we might leave it. But we will detain you with a remark 



ARE ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 121 

or two upon our text ; in which the same doctrine is clearly set 
forth. 

" And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is 
given unto me in heaven and on earth." Here the omnipotence 
of Jesus Christ is unequivocally shown ; and with it every other 
divine attribute. For divine attributes are inseparable ; and the 
possession of one implies the possession of all the rest. He has 
all power in heaven and on earth. He has therefore the power 
of seeing all things and of being every where. Thus he has 
omniscience and omnipresence ; and of course every other 
characteristic of God. 

We are aware that the word given in this passage seems to 
imply that there is a power superior to Jesus ; and hence that 
his power is but delegated. But this is only an appearance, 
similar to many others in the Word, where Jesus is represented 
as separate from God. This subject, however, is particularly 
discussed on another occasion ; and we will not dwell upon it 
now. We will here only remark that the difficulty arises from 
attaching to the word given a natural idea, that is an idea de- 
rived from time and space ; which supposes distinct personality 
in the giver and receiver, and a separation between him that 
gives and him that receives. But all this difficulty vanishes 
when we attach to the word given a spiritual idea. According 
to such an idea Jehovah gives all power to Jesus, in the same 
sense that my soul gives all its power to my body, or an essence 
gives all its power to its form, or a cause gives all its power to 
its effect. And you might just as well argue that my body is 
separate from my soul, or a form is separate from its essence, 
because the power of the one is given to it by the other, as argue 
that Jesus is separate from Jehovah, because all power is given 
to him by Jehovah. Every interior principle is full and perfect 
in its ultimate; and has no power without its ultimate. Thus 
my soul has no power without its body ; affection has no power 
without thought ; will no power without understanding ; virtue 
no power without wisdom : and these spiritual principles to- 
gether have no power without a bodily organization in which 
they are ultimated, and by which they manifest themselves. So 

12 



122 ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 

the divine essence has no power without its form; Jehovah has 
no power without his body. But the essential divine principle 
is full and perfect in its ultimate, and has all power by its ulti- 
mate. Thus the divine soul gives all power to its body. And 
thus Jesus, the body of Jehovah, has all power given unto him 
in heaven and on earth. 

But we waive this subject. It is not relevant here. The 
question before us is, whether the humanity is divine — not how 
it became so. The question is, whether the humanity possesses 
the divine attributes : there can be no question that the divine 
essence does. Now it seems to us there could not be a passage 
more perfectly in point than our text. " Jesus came and spake" 
— they saw him and heard him. It was not an impalpable, in- 
comprehensible, inconceivable, unseen and unknown being ; it 
was some thing that came and spake : it was a divine human 
form which came and spake unto them, saying, " all power is 
given unto me in heaven and on earth." The form that spake 
possessed all power. Jesus possessed all power. And as " Jesus 
is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," he, therefore, 
possesses all power now. Hence it is perfectly manifest that 
the humanity has all power. Thus it is clear that Jesus is 
omnipotent. It is no matter hoiv he became so, or when he 
became so. That is not the question. The question is, is the 
human possessed of divine attributes now. This is settled. 
Jesus is omnipotent. And if omnipotent, then he is possessed 
of all divine attributes: and if possessed of divine attributes, 
then he is God: and if God — should be worshiped. Hereafter 
we shall proceed to show that he was actually worshiped when 
on earth, and that he is now worshiped in heaven. 

We shall conclude this part of our series with two reflections. 

First, If Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on earth — 
is hence God, and ought to be worshiped, then we ought to ad- 
dress our prayers to him directly. When, in your worldly 
vocations, you want any favours, do you not go to those who 
are able to give them to you and ask them for them ? If, now, 
Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on earth, he is able 
to give you whatever you want, or can ask for, in heaven or on 



ARE ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 123 

earth. Should you not then ask him for what you desire ? 
thus should you not pray to him? 

But you say, we are commanded to pray to the father, and 
to supplicate him to have mercy on us for Jesus Christ's sake. 
It is true the Lord has said, " whatsoever ye shall ask the father 
in my name, he will give it you." But the name of Jesus in 
this passage means Jesus himself — his name is his quality, his 
state ; and we ask in his name, when we ask from a quality 
and state similar to his — when we ask from his spirit abiding 
in us and dictating to us what we shall ask. And the father 
will give us whatsoever we ask from this spirit, because it will 
be according to his order to grant it. But if we were to ask 
from our own spirit, that is in our own name, the father could 
not grant it because it would not be good for us. 

Again, the name of Jesus means Jesus himself; and Jesus is 
the form, the body, the express image of the father. Hence, we 
pray to the father in the name of Jesus when we pray to Jesus 
himself as the personal manifestation of God. For the father 
is in Jesus, and we come to the father in him and through him. 
He does not mean that we should put up verbal petitions to the 
father as a separate being, in the mere words Jesus Christ. 
This is taking in a far too literal sense the Lord's words, 
which he elsewhere says are spirit and are life. And how are 
we to come to the father, unless we come to him in Jesus Christ ? 
and how are we to pray to him unless we pray to him in Jesus 
Christ ? Where is he? What is he? How can you conceive 
of him ? How can you think of him ? You may pray to 
something out of Jesus Christ, which you call the father: but 
it is a thing of your own imagination. It is not really the 
father; and when you pray to it, you do not pray really to the 
father, you only pray to your own imagination of the father. 
Jesus says, "J am the way, the truth, and the life: no man 
cometh unto the father but by me." Now by coming to the fa- 
ther, he does not mean walking up to him with our bodies. He 
means approaching him spiritually, mentally ; that is, coming 
to him in thought : and this we do in prayer. No man, there- 



124 ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES 

fore, prays to the father unless he prays to Jesus Christ in his 
proper person. No man prays to the father, unless he thinks 
of Jesus Christ at the same time that he thinks of the father. 
Again he says, " I and the father are one ;" " I am in the father 
and the father in me ;" " he that hath seen me hath seen the 
father." Now by seeing he does not mean corporeal sight, but 
spiritual or mental sight. Therefore, he that mentally sees 
Jesus mentally sees the father. That is, he who thinks of Jesus, 
has, in so far, the father in his thought at the same time: be- 
cause Jesus is " the form of God" and the " express image of 
his substance :" so that he who sees Jesus must at the same 
time see the father in the only way in which he can be seen. 
For no man has at any time seen God in his essence, and no 
man can so see him and live. But to see Jesus in thought is 
to see the father in him, as a divine essence in its appropriate 
divine form. Now this mental sight is exercised in prayer. 
Hence praying to Jesus is praying to the father. And hence 
to pray to the father in the name of Jesus is, in one sense, to 
pray to the Divine Being in that divine human form by which 
he has manifested himself. Thus it is to pray to Jesus Christ 
himself. 

Wherefore, we are not required by the Lord's command to 
pray to the father as a being out of Jesus Christ, and to sup- 
plicate of him spiritual favours for the sake of Jesus Christ as 
a being distinct from him. And, consequently, it is a direct 
inference from our text, that, if Jesus Christ is God, we should 
offer up our prayers to him directly. 

Secondly, As Jesus Christ is God, he should be the object 
of our highest reverence and love. 

We should reverence him, because he is the source of all 
truth ; and we should love him because he is the source of all 
good. He says, u I am the way, the truth, and the life." He 
is the word which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
world. He is, therefore, the great fountain of wisdom, and the 
source of all human intelligence. And as he has " all power 
in heaven and on earth ;" and as " a man can receive nothing 



ARE ASCRIBEI3 TO JESUS CHRIST. 125 

except it be given him from heaven ;" therefore, a man can 
receive nothing except it be given him from Jesus Christ : who 
is thus the " giver of every good and perfect gift." 

Now we are accustomed to reverence and love men for their 
wisdom and virtue. Those who are learned, experienced and 
sage, we ever treat with deference. We have respect to their 
opinions, and treasure up their sayings. We seek their advice 
and regulate our conduct by it. We hold them in honour, rise 
in their presence, and are silent while they speak. But if all 
this is due and paid to men noted for their wisdom, how much 
rather ought it to be paid to Him who is wisdom itself. But 
you ask how are we to reverence him ? We answer by at- 
tending to, and paying deference to what he says in, his Word. 
The wise man lives and speaks in his writings, when his body 
has left our sight and is mouldering in the dust. In them are 
contained his choicest thoughts, his deepest reflections, his most 
deliberate judgments, the sums total of his knowledge, the 
results of his experience, and his wisest maxims. If we were 
wont to reverence him, we reverence these his writings. We 
procure them with avidity, preserve them with care, peruse 
them with attention, and carefully reduce to practice the maxims 
they contain. So too, our Lord, though he has left the earth, 
so as not to be visible to our bodily eyes, yet he lives and speaks 
to us in his Word. If, then, we would reverence him, we will 
reverence his Word. We will procure it, if we have it not ; 
we will value it above price ; we will read it with the most pro- 
found attention ; and we will most scrupulously practise its 
precepts. For " the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
soul : the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the sim- 
ple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart : 
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever : the judgments 
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be de- 
sired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold : sweeter 
also than honey and the honey-comb." (Ps. xix. 7 — 10.) And 
the Lord has said, " Search the Scriptures, for they are they 
which testify of me." 

12 * 



126 DIVINE ATTRIBUTES ASCRIBED TO JESUS. 

Therefore, if we would honour the Lord, we shall study dili- 
gently his Word, and regulate all our conduct by its precepts. 
And in like manner shall we express towards him our love. 
For he says, " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth 
them, he it is that loveth me ;" and u if a man love me, he will 
keep my words : and my father will love him, and we will 
come unto him and make our abode with him." " Amen. 
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus," and take up in us thy 
everlasting abode ! 



SERMON VIII. 



PSALM II. 10. 

" Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his 
wrath is kindled but a little." 

In discussing the doctrine of the Lord, we come now, in the 
series which has been proposed, to the consideration of the 
proper object of christian worship. 

Both of the principal divisions of the old christian church, 
namely the Trinitarians and the Unitarians, with whose views 
we have been comparing and contrasting the views of the new- 
jerusalem church, regard God as an invisible and incomprehensi- 
ble divine essence. The Unitarians, especially, think it essential 
idolatry to conceive of God as existing in form. Therefore 
they, in worship, approach the Deity as a mere principle of 
goodness, mercy, wisdom, or power, which is inconceivable in 
any embodyment appreciable to human thought or to any hu- 
man faculty. 

The Trinitarians, too, expressly define God as a being 
" without body, parts or passions ;" and, in the thought and 
feeling of their worship, endeavour to approach directly the 
unembodied divine essonce. Thus they pray to the father di- 
rectly, and implore him to grant them divine favours for the 
sake of the son. 

Hence both Trinitarians and Unitarians regard the essential 
divinity as the proper object of worship. They worship directly 
the active principle of the godhead. 

But the new-jerusalem church, on the contrary, looks to 
the reactive principle of the godhead as the appropriate object 



128 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

of her worship. That is, she regards the active only in the re- 
active. She worships the son as the image, the likeness, the 
glory, the wisdom, the power, and thus the full embodyment of 
the father. She does not, indeed, regard the form or person of 
God as God himself, but she does not attempt to conceive of 
God except in and through his form, and does not attempt to 
approach to God in thought except through his person. She 
does not therefore worship his person, but his qualities in his 
person. She worships his love and his wisdom in their appro- 
priate manifestation. Hence, as Jesus Christ is the full and 
most appropriate manifestation of divine love and divine wisdom, 
she regards him as the proper object of worship : that is, the 
new-jerusalem church believes that Jesus Christ should be the 
object of thought whenever the human mind endeavours to form 
any conception of what the divine love or the divine wisdom is, 
and that the divine love and the divine wisdom should be re- 
garded and loved in his person as well as received into our 
souls by the regenerating influences of the divine sphere which 
incessantly proceeds from his person as a glorified divine-hu- 
man essence. In short, the new-jerusalem church teaches that, 
whenever we think of God, we must think of Jesus Christ ; and 
whenever we think of Jesus Christ, we must think of God. 

This chief tenet of her faith, as well as all others of minor 
consequence, the new church founds upon the Word. And 
among the passages of the Word by which this tenet may be 
confirmed, our present text stands forth conspicuous. 

" Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way 
when his ivrath is kindled but a little ." Jn discoursing upon 
these words, we intend to show, first, that the son ought to be 
worshiped ; and, secondly, that the son whom we are here com- 
manded to worship, is Jesus Christ. 

In the first place, the son is the proper object of worship. 
This follows from the spiritual signification of the verse from 
which our text is taken. For, " Kiss the son," signifies con- 
junction with the Lord by love. " Lest he be angry, and ye 
perish in the way," signifies, lest evils invade you, and ye be 
condemned: for to be angry, when it is said of the Lord, signi- 



THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 129 

fies the aversion or turning away of men from him, conse- 
quently their anger and not the Lord's ; and evils [that is the 
passions and conduct which flow from self-love and love of the 
world] are the things which cause men to avert themselves, and 
afterwards cause them to be angry. "Because his anger will 
kindle shortly," signifies the last judgment, and the casting 
down of the evil into hell. "Blessed are all they that put their 
trust in him," signifies salvation by love and faith in the Lord. 
(Ap. Ex. 684.) 

Hence when we are commanded to kiss the son, it is mani- 
festly signified that we should worship him. For the kiss is a 
sign of love; and hence the act of kissing denotes conjunction 
from love. Therefore to kiss the son signifies conjunction with 
him from love. Now conjunction from love implies every kind 
and degree of worship. For, as Paul says, u love is the fulfil- 
ment of the law ;" and the law, which is the divine truth, 
embraces every formulary of faith and worship. Love implies 
the keeping the Lord's commandments ; for Jesus says, " He 
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that 
loveth me:" and this implies conformity to all the requisitions 
of the Gospel, wherein prayer, and its modes, the ordinances, 
and all the observances of the christian church, are set forth and 
enjoined. 

Thus conjunction from love implies every kind and degree of 
worship. Hence to kiss the son implies the worship of the son. 
It does not imply merely the verbal ascription of honour to him, 
by saying that he is God, and thinking him equal with the 
father ; but it implies the actual rendering of honour to him as 
God himself — to him as the sole or only God : for it implies 
that we should give him our love, whereas it is expressly com- 
manded that we should " love the Lord our God with all our 
heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind." Hence, 
as we are commanded to kiss the son, that is, to love and serve 
him, the son must be the Lord our God. 

And if we are to be conjoined to the son from love, and this 
implies all worship, then we are to love and worship him alone : 



130 THE SOiV OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

for it is written, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
him only shalt thou serve." 

Thus we are to worship the son as God alone, and we are to 
serve him only. We are to pray to him alone ; for to pray to 
another, would be to worship that other : and we pray to another 
than the son, when we pray to the father out of the son. Hence 
we are not to pray to the father for the sake of the son. For 
we are commanded to kiss the son, not to kiss the father. 

We are commanded to " honour the son, even as we honour 
the father;" and " he that honoureth not the son, honoureth not 
the father who sent him." Hence we are to pray to the son ; 
for this is to honour him: and he that prayeth not to the son, 
prayeth not to the father. 

All who are heavily laden are to come unto the son for rest. 
To him " every knee is to bow, of things in heaven, things in 
earth, and things under the earth ; and every tongue is to confess 
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father :" for un- 
less we bow the knee and confess to the son, we cannot worship 
the father, or render glory to him ; because the father and the son 
are one ; the father is in the son and the son is in the father ; 
and no man can come to the father but by the son. Hence the 
son must be approached directly. 

The son is the door by which we are to enter to the father ; 
and he that climbs up any other way is a thief and a robber. 
Hence we are not to make to ourselves any graven image of 
the father — we are not to devise in our own minds any general, 
indistinct, or bodyless notions of divine goodness, excellence, 
or perfection; thus we are not to form in our imagination any 
conceptions of the father as a being separate from Jesus ; but 
we are to go to the father in Jesus — we are to know what di- 
vine goodness is by studying what is good in him, and to know 
what is good in him we must have him formed in us by re- 
generation. For he is the express image, the bodily manifes- 
tation, of the father's substance — he is in the bosom of the 
father and by his character brings him forth to view ; and by 
regeneration from him we have our sins wiped away, and, being 



THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 131 

made new creatures in Christ by having Christ formed in us 
the hope of glory, we know who the father is by thus knowing 
Christ. 

We must go, therefore, to the son to have our sins forgiven : 
for though we know that no one can forgive sins but God only, 
yet we also know " that the Son of Man hath power on earth 
to forgive sins ;" and hence we must go to the Son of Man to 
have our sins forgiven. And we must go to the Son of Man 
alone. We must not go to the father out of the son. For if 
the father out of the son forgives sins, and the son himself also 
forgives sins ; then there are two beings who forgive sins ; thus 
there are two Gods : because God only forgives sins. But 
" the Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. vi. 4. — Mark, xii. 29.) 
And " to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses." 
(Dan. ix. 9.) And the son of man hath power to forgive sins. 
Thus the son of man is the one Lord, who is the Lord our God, 
to whom belong mercies and forgivenesses ; and to whom alone, 
therefore, we are to go to have our sins forgiven. And thus 
there are not two beings who forgive sins : and hence we are 
not to go to the father out of the son, by praying to him to for- 
give our sins for the son's sake ; but we are to go to the father 
in the son, and to pray to the son himself, as " the Mighty 
God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace, who 
hath the government upon his own shoulders," and pray to him 
to forgive us our sins, " for his own name's sake," (Jer. xiv. 7,) 
and " for his mercies' sake." (Ps. vi. 4.) 

All things whatsoever we ask in the son's name, that the 
son will do : or whatsoever we ask the father in the son's name 
— that is, in the son's person and character — that the father 
will do. For all things that the father hath are the son's also. 
Hence, all worship is to be paid to the son, and only through 
the son to the father. " Whosoever denieth the son, the same 
hath not the father : but he that acknowledgeth the son hath 
the father also." (1 John, ii. 23.) For the father dwelleth in 
the son ; since in him " dwells all the fulness of the godhead 
bodily :" and is manifested only by and through the son ; since 
" no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten son, 



132 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him." 
" No man," therefore, " cometh unto the father but by the 
son." (John, xiv. 6.) Hence, no man can worship the father, 
except he worship the son. The son, therefore, is to be wor- 
shiped. Wherefore, " Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye 
perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." 

But, in the second place, let us inquire, who is this son, 
whom we are commanded to worship upon so heavy a penalty ? 
Some, as we have before stated, hold that he is a son born from 
eternity, who is equal in all respects to the father, and who 
descended and assumed human nature upon earth. And hence 
this son of God from eternity is the divine nature of Christ, 
from which his human nature was begotten. Hence they seem 
to maintain that there are two sons of God — one begotten from 
eternity, and the other begotten in time. And, as has also been 
said, they make such a distinction between the divine and hu- 
man natures of Christ, that the human is not an object of wor- 
ship ; for they make his human to differ in no respect from that 
of a mere man. 

But we maintain that the son alluded to in the text is the son 
born in time, and not a son born from eternity. We maintain 
that it is the human nature which Jehovah himself assumed and 
glorified upon earth. In other words, by the son is here meant 
the Divine Humanity, which is called Jesus Christ. This is 
evident from the fact that John, speaking of the word made flesh, 
calls him the only begotten of the father, (ch. i. 14.) And that 
the word made flesh is Jesus Christ, is manifest : for John says, 
(verse 14,) " The word was made flesh and dwelt among us, 
full of grace and truth." Yet he says, (verse 17,) " but grace 
and truth came by Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ, then, and the 
word made flesh are one and the same. Again, (verse 15,) 
John bare witness of him, (that is, of the word made flesh,) and 
cried, saying, " This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh 
after me, is preferred before me ; for he was before me." And, 
(verses 29, 30,) " The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto 
him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After me 



THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 133 

cometh a man, which is preferred before me : for he was before 
me :" — thus expressly and completely identifying Jesus with the 
word made flesh. But Jesus and the word made flesh being the 
same, and the word made flesh being the only begotten of the 
father, Jesus, therefore, is the only begotten of the father. 

This may be still further confirmed. For, in Matt. iii. 16, 
17, it is said, " when Jesus was baptized, and went up out of 
the water, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the 
spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. 
And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son, 
in whom I am well pleased." And John, (i. 32, 34,) bare re- 
cord of Jesus, "saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven 
like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I saw and bare 
record that this is the son of God." But he had said (verse 18,) 
" No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten son. 
which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him." 

Now it appears from this, that there is but one son begotten 
of God. And Jesus is shown to be the son of God, both by 
the voice from heaven, and the express declaration of John his 
forerunner. Jesus Christ, therefore, is the only begotten son 
of God. 

So when Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and 
John, (Matt. xvii. 1 — 5,) a voice out of the cloud said, " This 
is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him." 
In this passage there cannot be a question that Jesus is desig- 
nated as the son of God. 

But Jesus himself settles this point, by what he says in John, 
(ix. 35 — 37,) to the man born blind, to whom he had given 
sight, " Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered 
and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? And 
Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that 
talketh with thee :" — thus directly asserting that he was the 
son of God. Now compare this with the eighteenth verse of the 
first chapter of John already quoted, " No man hath seen God 
at any time, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of 
the father, he hath declared him :" and you cannot for a mo- 

13 



134 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

ment hesitate to admit that Jesus Christ is the only begotten 
son of God. 

You may gather this, too, from the First Epistle of John. 
For instance, in ch. iv. 9, u In this was manifested the love of 
God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten son 
into the world, that we might live through him." And in verses 
14, 15, " we have seen and do testify, that the father sent 
the son to be the saviour of the world. Whosoever shall con- 
fess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he 
in God." He had before said, too, in the second verse, 
" Hereby know ye the spirit of God : every spirit that confess- 
ed that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." Now 
put these things together, and you cannot resist the conclusion, 
that Jesus Christ is not only the son, but is the only begotten son 
of God. 

We feel warranted in asserting, then, that the idea of a son 
of God born from eternity is no where held forth in the Word. 
If you examine the Word attentively, you will find there is but 
one son of God — an only begotten son, namely, the word 
made flesh, which was a son begotten in time, and was called 
Jesus Christ. 

We admit that a son of God has existed ever since creation, 
namely, the divine truth, which is the form and manifestation 
of the divine goodness, and which is the word that was in the 
beginning with God and was God, by whom every thing was 
made that was made. And in the sense of proceeding from, 
this son may be said to be born, from eternity. But it cannot 
be said to be begotten, because this term implies a beginning to 
exist. Nor can it be said to be born, so far as born and begot- 
ten are synonymous in this sense. For it is manifest that this 
son was not born in this sense from eternity, because it is said 
" In the beginning was the word," and eternity has no begin- 
ning. In fact, it is not possible that there could be any son of 
God before creation ; because, according to this sacred record 
itself, the son is he by whom all things were made : in other 
words, the son is that emanation of the Divine Being which 



THE PROPER OBJECT OP CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 135 

produces creation as an inevitable result. Thus the son can 
no more exist without creation than a cause can exist without 
its effect. The son is u the wisdom of God and the power of 
God ;" and you see clearly that the wisdom and the power of 
God cannot possibly exist but in his divine acts or operations, 
which are the manifestations of his power and wisdom, and 
these are creation. So that, as the wisdom of God and the 
power of God can have no possible existence without the mani- 
festations of divine wisdom and power, thus without the works 
of creation — just as, comparatively, the concussion of the atmo- 
sphere cannot exist without sound, or any other cause cannot 
exist without its effect — in like manner the son of God could 
have no possible existence without creation. And, therefore, 
there could not possibly be a son of God born from eternity ; 
because creation must take place in time. Hence we maintain 
there is but one son of God — an only begotten son, namely the 
word which was a son begotten in time. In the very begetting 
of this son of God, time commenced. And hence it is said " In 
the beginning was the word." And it is manifest that this son 
of God, which was in the beginning, and Jesus Christ are the 
same. For Jesus Christ was this very word made flesh. 
Hence Paul speaks of Jesus Christ as " the same yesterday, 
to-day and for ever." And John (1 Ep. iv. 3) says, "every 
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, 
is not of God" — thus intimating that Jesus Christ had an exist- 
ence before he came in the flesh ; and of course was the son 
of God that was in the beginning with God and was God. But 
there is a distinction between a son existing or proceeding in 
the beginning with God, and a son born or begotten of God. 
The son existing in the beginning is the first or inmost mani- 
festation of the Divinity, that is, the most proximate sphere of 
the divine essence ; and the son born, or, as Paul expresses it, 
" the first begotten brought into the world" is the last or outer- 
most manifestation of the Divinity. The one is the Alpha, the 
other is the Omega. And as we cannot suppose a state of di- 
vine inaction ; hence must suppose creation infinite, and thus 
as far as our conceptions go, eternal, there must have been, in 



136 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

one sense, a son of God existing from eternity — that is, there 
must have been a son of God in every point of time : thus a 
son of God has existed throughout all time ; and all time is to 
us eternal time. But the son of God was born in one point of 
time ; and of course was not born or begotten from eternity. 
Hence it is said that the word which was in the beginning was 
made flesh, and dwelt among us: that is, the divine truth came 
into a state and form accommodated to our perceptions ; and thus 
the infinite was finited for our salvation. 

There is, then, clearly a distinction between a son born or 
existing from eternity and a son born or begotten from eternity. 
And though, in a certain sense, we may suppose a son of God 
to have existed from eternity, yet it is totally absurd to suppose 
a son of God begotten from eternity. The truth is that the son 
of God existing from eternity, was born in time. And thus the 
son existing and the son born are the same. Wherefore, we 
say there is but one son of God. And we say there was an 
only begotten son, namely, the word made flesh. For the son 
which is in the beginning, that is,- the word itself which was 
made flesh, was not also the begotten son of God ; because 
John expressly says " the word was God" Hence God him- 
self was made flesh ; and for this reason the child which was 
conceived of the holy ghost and born of the virgin, was called 
Emmanuel, God-with-us. This child was also called Jesus be- 
cause he saves his people from their sins ; and Jesus Christ, 
because in him dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily : 
and these two terms signify that fulness, Jesus signifying the 
divine good, and Christ, the divine truth. 

Jesus Christ, then, or the son born in time, or the divine hu- 
man nature of Jehovah God, which he manifested and glorified 
upon earth, is the son referred to in our text. And hence our 
text, at the time it was written, had a prophetic bearing, and 
referred to the Messiah who was then to come, and not to a 
son who had existed from eternity. 

Paul also shows this clearly and unequivocally in his Epistle to 
the Hebrews, in which he quotes a passage of this very Psalm, 
and applies it expressly to Christ — as you will find in the fifth 



THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 137 

chapter at the fifth verse. " So also Christ glorified not himself 
to be made a high priest ; but He that said unto him, Thou art 
my son, to-day have I begotten thee." Thus he shows, without 
a shadow of doubt, that the son alluded to in our text is Jesus 
Christ, and not a son who had been born from eternity and who 
had an individuality distinct from the father. For he not only 
in express language identifies Christ with the son mentioned in 
our text, but says he u glorified not himself:" whereas, if he, 
as to his divine nature, had been an individuality distinct from 
the father and yet equal with the father, he would have glori- 
fied himself by his own proper power. 

Here we may observe, by the way, the fallacy of those who 
ground salvation upon a righteousness wrought out by the son 
to appease the father. For the righteousness of the son must 
have been his glory. And hence the righteousness which he 
wrought out must have been the glorification of himself. Yet 
he did not glorify himself by any distinctive power. But the 
father glorified him. The same doctrine is taught by the Lord 
where he says, (John, xii. 28,) " Father glorify thy name :" 
and again, (John, xiii. 31,) " Now is the Son of Man glorified, 
and God is glorified in him." Hence the righteousness of Jesus 
Christ is the righteousness of the father in him. And it is ab- 
surd to suppose that the father wrought out a righteousness to 
appease his own wrath. 

But, to return, if now Christ was the son of God alluded to 
in the text, and he had not a divine self-hood, that is, an appro- 
priate divine nature distinct from the father, but was divine by 
virtue of the glorification which the father wrought in him — 
then the son of God to which the text alludes, is not a distinct 
divine individuality born from eternity. This view Paul con- 
firms, when he says, in the beginning of the epistle, " God, who 
at sundry times, and in divers manners,, spake in time past unto 
the fathers by the prophets, hath, in these last days, spoken 
unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, 
by whom also he made the worlds ; who, being the brightness 
of his glory, and the express image of his substance, and up- 
holding all things by the word of his power, when he had by 

13* 



138 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the 
Majesty on High, being made so much better than the angels, 
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than 
they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou 
art my son, this day have I begotten thee I" And again, " 
will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son ?" And 
again, " when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, 
he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him." (ch. i. 1 — 6.) 
Could any thing be more to the point than this quotation? 
Here Paul mentions God's speaking to us in these last days by 
his son : thus showing that the son is the humanity which was 
born in time. 

But especially mark these words: "When he bringeth the 
first-begotten into the world, he saith, Let all the angels of God 
worship Aim." By this passage all we are contending for is 
established. For it shows that the^rsZ-begotten was brought 
into the world : of course, he was not begotten from eternity. 
This term first-begotten, may signify, either that which was 
begotten in the beginning now brought forth in this particular 
point of time, or what is now begotten for the first time. But 
in either case it must allude to only one begotten. For if it 
does not, and if it alludes to priority of birth in one among 
several, then it would follow that there are more than one be- 
gotten. But it has been clearly shown that the son of God is 
his only begotten son. The first and only begotten son, then, 
was the son which was brought into the world. Consequently, 
there could not have been a son begotten from eternity. 

Moreover, the angels of God are expressly commanded to 
worship this son which was brought into the world. For it is 
said, " Let all the angels of God worship Aim." Now, if the 
angels of God are to worship this son, surely he ought to be 
worshiped by men. 

Thus this single passage of Paul proves the two points for 
which we have been contending, namely, that there is not a son 
born from eternity, but a son born in time ; and that the son 
born in time, that is the human nature of the Lord, ought to be 
worshiped. And in the fourth chapter, at the fourteenth verse, 



THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 139 

we find Paul saying, " we have a great high priest that is passed 
into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God." Here he most 
clearly identifies Jesus with the son of God. Wherefore Jesus 
is the first-begotten who was brought into the world, whom 
angels were commanded to worship, and whom consequently 
men ought to worship. 

Thus, then, is it established that Jesus Christ is the son re- 
ferred to in the text, and therefore is the legitimate and sole 
object of christian worship. On another occasion we shall 
show that Jesus Christ was worshiped when upon earth. 

The remainder of our text suggests so much matter of the 
most important consideration that our time will not allow us to 
dwell upon it. We will therefore conclude by illustrating it 
with one or two familiar comparisons. 

It is conceded on all hands that the Creator of the Universe, 
"who only hath immortality, dwells in light which no man can 
approach unto." Hence, in his essential nature, he is a being 
" whom no man hath seen, nor can see." Yet, as he is the 
source of all life and blessedness, it is manifest that man can- 
not enjoy the felicities of eternal life without conjunction with 
him. If, then, the great and glorious Jehovah did not descend 
from his essential and hidden nature, and, by an accommodated 
presentation make himself approachable and apprehensible by 
man, it is perfectly clear that man could not possibly enjoy the 
blessedness of eternal life. Now, to render himself approach- 
able and apprehensible by man, Jehovah must make himself the 
subject of man's thought and affection. For the whole of man 
is referable to two universal principles of his being, namely, 
his love and his wisdom. Love is his essential life, and wisdom 
is the form which that life acquires to itself by the reception and 
appropriation of truth. From love comes will and perception : 
from wisdom comes understanding and thought. Love feels, 
wisdom sees. The object of love is good: the object of wisdom 
is truth. Truth is the form of a thing, good is its quality. 
Truth, abstractly, is form, in which good inheres as quality. 
Hence the love of man perceives, that is, feels good, and the 
wisdom of man understands, that is, sees truth. The thought 



140 THE SON" OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

of man is nothing more than his mental cognizance of some 
form in his imaginative faculty. And when his thought is the 
mental cognizance of the entire form of a thing, he is said to un- 
derstand that thing. And the form of a thing thus taken cog- 
nizance of by the mind's seeing faculty, is a medium whereby 
the affection of the love perceives, feels, and delights in the 
good of that thing, which is its essence manifesting itself as the 
quality of its form. And it is perfectly clear that nothing can 
approach, or come into man, which does not thus enter by his 
thought into his affection. For, although good may flow from 
the Lord immediately into the will and its affections, still, if there 
were not truth in the understanding, or knowledge and science 
in the life, to react upon it, it would pass off unperceived, and 
without any abiding place. 

Now it is self-evident that an essence cannot exist out of its 
form ; and therefore cannot be perceived out of its form. But, 
from what has been said, it is clear that the quality of a form 
cannot be perceived, until the form itself is a subject of thought. 
Hence, if an essence does not present itself in form, so that its 
form can be seen in thought, it is totally impossible that man can 
ever know any thing about, or be affected with, that essence. 
This is universal. And hence unless Jehovah, who is the Es- 
sence of all essences, presents himself in form so that his form 
also can be seen in thought, it is totally impossible that man 
can ever know any thing about, or feel any affection for, him. 

Now the form of Jehovah is the wisdom, or the word, or the 
truth of God ; and this form is presented to the thought of man 
in Jesus Christ, who is the word made flesh. Hence, if man 
does not think of Jesus Christ as God, it is totally impossible 
for him ever to know any thing about, or to feel any affection 
for, God. And therefore, if he rejects Jesus Christ as God, 
he must sink in endless perdition. For there is " no other 
name given under heaven whereby we can be saved." This is 
the reason that we are commanded to kiss the son. And this is 
the reason why, if we do not kiss the son, we must perish ! 

The case, then, is this : Jehovah in his essential nature is 
invisible and unapproachable by man. But man cannot be blest 



THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 141 

unless he does in some measure see, approach and become con- 
joined to Jehovah. And man cannot spiritually see, approach 
and become conjoined to Jehovah, unless Jehovah so presents 
himself in form that he can be an object of man's thought and 
affection. In order, therefore, to save and bless man, Jehovah 
has actually so presented himself in form in the person of his 
only begotten son. If, then, man denies and rejects this son, 
he must inevitably be lost. 

The fact is, that man is fallen. By a perversion and abuse of 
his faculties he has so estranged himself from his Heavenly 
Father that he is utterly unfit for conjunction with him, and 
unless his nature is changed, he must plunge into remediless 
ruin. Now in this his deplorable condition, Jehovah, — who is 
a being of infinite love and mercy, who desires not the death 
of a sinner, but had rather he would turn from his wickedness 
and live, and whose bowels of tender mercies yearn over his 
fallen creatures with infinite compassion, — descends to earth, 
and so accommodates himself to man that he can communicate 
with him, and, by imparting to him his divine life, can raise 
him from the defilements in which he is immersed to the purity 
and bliss of heaven. This is the way which Jehovah has ac- 
tually adopted. And we are to presume that this is the only 
way in which man can be redeemed or saved. For, as we have 
said on another occasion, it is clear that infinite wisdom can take 
but one course to attain the ends of divine love — namely, the best 
course : and, therefore, the way which infinite wisdom actually 
does point out for man's salvation, is the only way in which he 
can be adequately saved. Consequently, if man neglects this 
way— if he will not come unto his God thus manifested, that he 
may have life — if he perversely marks out for himself some 
other way than that which has been indicated by Him who is 
"the way, the truth, and the life," what alternative can there 
be but that he must perish! 

To feel the force of the latter clause of our text still more 
strongly, we may use the following illustration. Suppose all 
men were labouring under an epidemic disease, which so pros- 
trated their strength, and paralysed their faculties, that they 



142 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY 

could neither devise a remedy for themselves, nor apply one 
when devised. And suppose a spiritual agent was to enter into 
a body like to theirs, undergo himself the disease, and by con- 
formity to the rules of the most perfect medical skill, curejiis 
own body and gain that sensible experience of the nature of 
the disease which would enable him to prescribe for the cure 
and restoration to perfect health of those who were dying around 
him. But suppose, because he appeared to be a weak mortal 
like themselves, they were to despise him, scorn his prescrip- 
tions, and, in the delirium of their disordered imaginations, were 
to eat and drink those things which were most palatable to their 
diseased appetites: would not death be the inevitable consequence, 
and a death aggravated by pains and torments proportioned to 
the indulgence of their morbid propensities? 

Now this is precisely what results in a spiritual way to those 
who reject Jesus Christ as the manifested Jehovah healing the 
body of human nature which he assumed in the womb of the 
virgin, and who imagine salvation to consist in any thing but a 
life according to his commandments. This natural picture por- 
trays most accurately the present spiritual condition of the world. 
We have estranged ourselves from God. We have degene- 
rated from the purity, and lost the bliss, of angelic perfection. 
We are spiritually diseased. Our moral strength is prostrated, 
and our spiritual faculties are paralyzed. And though we think 
we live, and are glorying and boasting in our strength, it is 
nothing but feverish excitement, and the ravings of delirium. 
We are sunk in selfishness and worldly-mindedness. " The 
whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the 
sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it; 
but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores : they have not 
been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." 
(Is. i.) And in this our state of utter helplessness, Jehovah 
himself has descended. The Great Physician of Souls has 
visited us. He has taken upon himself our diseased body. By 
conforming to the prescriptions of divine truth, he has restored 
it to perfect health. And by and through the mode of treat- 
ment in this his own case, he has left us such a curative 



THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 143 

formulary — such rules of life — as will, by his continued assist- 
ance, enable us, in like manner, to attain to spiritual health. 
He has himself overcome "the world, the flesh and the devil," 
and has commanded us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross 
daily, and to follow him. He has commanded us to mortify 
our selfish propensities, to renounce the world, and to love God 
supremely and our neighbour as ourselves. For without this 
love, we can never enjoy conjunction with him, nor consociation 
with angels in heaven, but must die the second death. 

But mankind, too generally, are not willing to give up them- 
selves and the world. They maintain that self-love is natural 
to us, and therefore allowable. And, instead of following the 
Lord's example, and pouring out their " soul even unto death" 
— instead of being willing to "lose their life for the Lord's sake, 
that they might find it" — instead of being willing " to lay down 
their life for the brethren" — they set about refining the princi- 
ple of self-love, and maintain that, when properly regulated, it 
is the fountain head of virtue. Thus they take their cure into 
their own hands ; and in their fancied strength and superior wis- 
dom, they despise the humiliating prescriptions of the meek and 
humble Jesus. They " will not have this man to rule over 
them." They make to themselves a god, whom they worship, 
and whom they can worship, without giving up self. They 
pass by and slight the appointed medium of their salvation — turn 
from Him who " giveth that water which would be in them a 
well of water springing up into everlasting life," and " hew 
out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which will hold no 
water." They create for themselves imaginary heavens in the 
delights of forbidden loves, and so confirm themselves in the 
principles which justify these loves and make them seem allow- 
able, as to render their minds impervious to the light of heaven, 
and their hearts callous to its sanative effects. In vain, then, 
does the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings : 
for the morbid state of their affections turns his genial influences 
into effects of a contrary nature, and their immortal souls perish 
as to all that is good, and exist only as loathsome forms of 
spiritual putrescence. Love to God — that heavenly flame which 



144 THE SON THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP. 

warms and dilates angelic hearts — becomes in their breasts 
the love of self. And this principle with all its appearances of 
life, is death. Yes ! refine it, gild it, polish it as you may, it is 
nothing else but death ! For it is death to the Lord's life: and 
therefore it is death to heaven — death to angelic consociation 
and angelic bliss! 

This is the death which man inevitably dies when he goes 
away from the Lord Jesus Christ to any other as having the 
words of eternal life. For God hath given to him a name which 
is above every name. The divine essence which was in Jesus 
by conception, has by its full development in his character, 
given him the quality of divine truth and divine goodness. And 
that soul whose knee bows not at the name of Jesus, or whose 
tongue confesses not that he is Lord — that soul whose under- 
standing does not bend its own intelligence, and see and receive 
truth as it is in Jesus, and whose will and affections do not 
perceive that the good which is in Jesus is the divine good, and 
do not appropriate that good to themselves, and thus do not be- 
come good as he is good — that soul whose knee does not thus 
bend at the name of Jesus, and whose tongue does not thus 
confess that he is Lord ; that soul, I say, does not and cannot 
" with the heart believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth 
make confession unto salvation" — that soul does not and cannot 
swell with the heavings of divine benevolence, and thus live in 
the activities correspondent to divine beneficence, but must die 
the death of sordid and unmingled selfishness ! 



SERMON IX. 

MATTHEW, XXVIII. 9. 
« And they came and held him by the feet, and worshiped him." 

In our last discourse we showed conclusively that the son is 
to be worshiped ; and as conclusively that by this son, is not 
meant a son born from eternity, but a son begotten in time — 
that is, a human nature and form manifested by Jehovah God 
himself upon earth, and called Jesus Christ. Hence we have 
shown upon scriptural authority, that Jesus Christ ought to be 
directly worshiped. And we have now to prove that he was 
actually worshiped when on earth. 

A preliminary question here naturally presents itself — what 
is worship ? Worship consists in two things, an internal feel- 
ing and an external act. It is a feeling of reverence, awe and 
profound humiliation proceeding from fear or love, and accom- 
panied by a correspondent bodily prostration. The Divine 
Being is the only proper object of this feeling, and before him 
alone should we thus prostrate ourselves. For he only is 
possessed of those perfections which deserve our supreme love. 
He is all-good, all-wise and almighty ; and all goodness, wis- 
dom and power in others are derived from him. Hence he has 
expressly commanded, "Thou shalt have no other gods before 
me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any 
likeness, of any thing in heaven above, or that is in the earth 
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth : thou shalt not 
bow down thyself to them, or serve them." (Exod. xx. 3 — 5.) 
And again, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him 
only shalt thou serve." (Matt. iv. 10.) But men, having be- 

14 



146 THE LORiD JESUS CHRIST 

come estranged from God, in their ignorance, their weakness 
and their wickedness, have " worshiped and served the creature 
more than the Creator." They actually worship whatever they 
love or fear. And when they know nothing of the true God, or 
do not love him, they attribute what is divine to the objects 
which they do love or fear, and pay them that honour and 
reverence which is due to God only. 

By superior knowledge? greater power, or in some other way, 
some men can command the lives and property, or control the 
welfare of others ; and thus become the objects of love or fear 
to those who are in this way subject to them. And when this 
love or fear is in activity, it produces a greater or less prostra« 
tion of the body, according to the intensity of the feeling. 
Hence a subject prostrates himself before his king — a captive 
before his conqueror — a lover before his mistress — the suppliant 
of mercy before the highwayman who is about to take his life. 
This is the reason that we incline our bodies in bowing to those 
whom we respect or love, or whose favour we wish for any 
reason to conciliate. This is the deference which we invariably 
pay to goodness, or wisdom, or power. And it is a deference 
paid to men on account of those qualities which, when consi- 
dered abstractedly from them, are divine. 

So far as this deference is paid to the qualities of goodness, 
wisdom, or power themselves as divine, and to men for the 
sake of them, so far it is proper : for it is the worshiping the 
Creator in the creature as his legitimate representative. For 
this reason, reverence and respect paid to a king, or other chief 
ruler, a governor, a judge, or a priest, are proper : because the 
principles of royalty, justice, judgment and priesthood are in 
themselves holy. Hence Paul says, " Let every soul be subject 
unto the higher powers ; for there is no power but of God ; the 
powers that be are ordained of God." (Rom. xiii. 1.) " Ren- 
der, therefore, honour to whom honour is due." (verse 7.) 
1 ' Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double 
honour." (1 Tim. v. 17.) And Peter says, (1 Ep. ii. 17,) 
" Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour 
the king," 



WAS WORSHIPED WHEN OX EARTH. 147 

But so far as this deference is paid to men themselves on ac- 
count of these qualities as their own, so far it is wrong: be- 
cause it is attributing what is divine to men, and is thus idolatry. 
Hence, when Herod, as recorded in Acts, xii. took to himself 
the honour due to God, "the angel of the Lord smote him be- 
cause he gave not God the glory : and he was eaten of worms, 
and gave up the ghost." 

This distinction it is important we should keep in mind. Let 
us, therefore, repeat it. Reverence paid to men on account of 
what is good and true as divine in them, is the worship of God 
in them : but reverence paid to men themselves, on account of 
what is good and true as their own in them is the worship of 
the creature instead of the Creator, and is idolatry. 

From what has been said, it follows, that divine worship is 
reverence paid to a being on account of divine virtues supposed 
to be in him as his own. It is perfectly evident that this wor- 
ship can be legitimately rendered to none but God ; for he alone 
has divine virtues in him as his own. Reverence paid to those 
who have divine virtues delegated to them by him, is not the 
worship of them, but of him in them. It is like the respect paid 
to the ambassador of a king ; which is not paid to him in his 
proper person, but to him as the representative of his sovereign. 
In order to show, then, that Jesus Christ was worshiped when 
on earth, we must make it appear that he was reverenced on 
account of divine virtues supposed to be in him as his own. 

That Jesus Christ was thus reverenced, appears from two 
facts : first, that he had divine virtues in him as his own ; and, 
second, that people paid him adoration on account of them. 

That the Lord had divine virtues as his own, appears from 
his own words. Life in itself is divinity ; and of course is the 
fountain of all divine virtues. But Jesus says, (John, v. 26,) 
11 As the father has life in himself, so hath he given to the son 
to have life in himself;" thus Jesus, who is the son, has life in 
himself; which implies the possessing, and the power of impart- 
ing, every divine virtue. John, too, speaking of him, says, 
" In him was life, and the life was the light of men." (i. 4.) 
Jesus again says, (xi. 25,) " I am the resurrection and the 



148 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

life." And that he is the source of this life to men, he inti- 
mates (v. 4) where he says to the Jews, " ye will not come to 
me, that ye might have life." That this life is in him as his 
own, is moreover manifest from what he says in chapter x. 17, 
18, " Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down 
my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from 
me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, 
and I have power to take it again." And there can be no 
doubt that he assumed to himself this as a divine attribute, as 
any one will be convinced, if he reads on in this chapter. For 
when he had said in verse 30, "I and my father are one," 
the Jews took up stones to stone him, because "he, being a 
man, made himself God." (verse 33.) 

Again, the forgiving of sins is a divine virtue. It is the ex- 
ercise of a power which belongs to God only. Yet Jesus 
assumed to himself this power, and actually did forgive sins ; 
as appears from Mark, ii. — where he says to the sick of the 
palsy, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." And when certain 
of the Scribes reasoned in their hearts " Why doth this man 
thus speak blasphemies ? who can forgive sins but God only?" 
he, by an ocular demonstration of divine power, showed them 
that " the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins." 
Thus by his own express declaration it appears that he had 
the divine virtue of forgiving sins. 

And that the Lord possessed all divine virtues, is summarily 
declared by him in these words, (John, xvi. 15,) "All things 
that the father hath are mine." 

We might go on to show that Jesus had divine virtues in 
him as his own, by many other declarations of his ; but these 
will suffice. 

That the Lord had divine virtues in him as his own, appears 
also from his acts. It is a divine virtue to raise the dead. But 
this he did, in the cases of Lazarus and the widow's son. It is 
by the exercise of divine virtue that the sick are miraculously 
healed, the lame are made to walk, the deaf to hear, those born 
blind are restored to sight, and devils are cast out; but all 
these things Jesus did in ways and instances so numerous, that 



WAS WORSHIPED WHEN" ON EARTH. 149 

it would take hours to repeat and comment on them. And that 
he did these from himself, is evident from the fact that when 
the Jews threatened to stone him because he assumed to him- 
self this power, he justified himself by asserting that he and 
God were one — that the father was in him, and he in the father. 
Had he been a mere man, and hence acted by a delegated divine 
power, he would have been anxious, as a good man, to do away- 
even the appearance of assuming the power and the glory to 
himself: and, especially as the Jews accused him of blasphemy , 
he would have strenuously denied that he took any honour to 
himself, and would have expressly r ascribed the power and 
given the honour solely to God. Instead of this he did not 
attempt to undo the impression in the minds of the Jews that 
he, though to appearance a man, made himself God ; but goes 
on to reason with them, and show, that there was an absolute 
unity between him and God, and thus that he had divine power 
in himself. He even made it a requisite or a condition of im- 
parting these divine influences, that they should believe he had 
the power. . Thus, when the two blind men followed him, cry- 
ing and saying, " Son of David, have mercy on us," he " saith 
unto them, Believe ye that J am able to do this ? They said 
unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying. 
According to your faith be it unto you." Now if this was not 
acting in his own strength, and if it was not taking to himself 
the praise of it, we are utterly at a loss to know what could be. 
It is true that the Lord elsewhere says, " I can of mine own 
self do nothing." (John, v. 30.) " The father that dwelleth in 
me, he doeth the works." (xiv. 10.) But this he says, not to 
disclaim the power he exercised as his own — not to show that 
he was a mere man, and thus a mere passive agent of God, 
like a prophet or an apostle ; but to show that he was not an 
individuality distinct from the father, but did the works from 
the father in him as a soul ; thus to show his absolute unity 
with God, and that he had power to do what he did by virtue 
of divinity in him as his own. For, in the context, he had 
said that he himself is the father, and he utters these words to 
confirm that assertion. Therefore these words of his taken in con- 

14* 



150 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

nexion with what goes before, evidently mean that he, as a mere 
human being, without the father, would have no life or existence 
at all, and thus no power whatever, just as a body would have 
no life without its soul . because he and the father are so inti- 
mately united as to be one, just as the soul and body of man 
are one. 

To see this, it is only necessary to read the context. The 
Lord said to Philip, " If ye had known me, ye should have 
known my father also : and from henceforth ye know him and 
have seen him." When Philip could not conceive how he had 
seen the father as he had only seen Jesus, and begged the Lord 
to show them the father because that would be enough, Jesus 
proceeds to say unto him " Have I been so long time with you, 
and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that hath seen 
me hath seen the father. Believest thou not that I am in the 
father, and the father in me ?" Then follow the words we 
quoted above, "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not 
of myself: but the father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the 
works. Believe me that I am in the father, and the father in 
me : or else believe me for the very works' sake." Hence it 
is evident that he says this to show, not that he is a mere man, 
but that he is God, and that there is no more distinction be- 
tween him and God, than there is between a manifested form 
and its hidden essence, or between a soul and its body. And 
as they could not yet believe him on his assertion — because 
the appearance of his being a mere man was yet so strong — he 
refers them to the works as an incontrovertible evidence of the 
truth of what he says. He says that he is the father — not sent 
by the father, or the accredited agent of the father — but the 
father himself. And the evidence he gives is, that he does the 
works of the father. Now, if he did not do the works himself, 
from the father as a soul in him, but the father, as a separate 
person, did the works by him as an agent ; then the works 
would be no evidence that he was the father, but only that he 
.was the agent of the father. But as he asserts that he is the 
father, and gives the works as an evidence of the fact ; he evi- 
dently asserts that he does the works himself by a power which 



WAS WORSHIPED WHEN OX EARTH. 151 

is in him as bis own, and not by a delegated power : that is, 
that he does the works from the father dwelling in him ; and 
not from the father dwelling above him, and acting on him, as 
would be the case were he a mere man, acting by a delegated 
power. 

It was necessary, too, that the Lord should have shown his 
absolute unity with the father by saying " I can of mine own 
self do nothing" — " the father that dwelleth in me he doeth the 
works :' ' because, as he invariably did these works of himself, 
and thus by a divine power in himself, if he had not shown his 
oneness with the father, he would have countenanced the idea, 
now so generally prevalent, that he had a divinity in him sepa- 
rate and distinct from the father. For, as he invariably assumed 
to himself divine power, and acted from a power avowedly his 
own, if this power had not been shown to be identical with the 
father's, then the conclusion would have been that there are 
two divine powers — thus two gods : or, at least, that there are 
two persons, of distinct, and separate, and equal power, in the 
godhead. But by thus identifying his power with the father's, 
and himself with the father, he completely subverted the idea of 
distinct duality in the godhead, which he, doubtless, in his 
omniscience foresaw would exist, and left no scriptural founda- 
tion for this thing of mere human devising. 

The acts of Jesus Christ, then, show that he had divine vir- 
tues in him as his own. The acts themselves were divine ; 
and, as he did them himself, he gave them as an evidence that 
he was God. Hence, when John sent two of his disciples to 
Jesus to know whether he were the true Messiah, Jesus com- 
manded them to go and show John again the things which they 
heard and saw, thus to show his works, as the evidence of his 
messiahship. 

And the Lord invariably spoke and acted, as we have said, 
from a power avowedly his own. Thus, when he raised the 
widow's son, "he said, Young man, I say unto thee arise." 
He did not command him to arise in the name of the father, 
as the apostles did in his name afterwards, but, without even 



152 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

mentioning the father, or alluding to the father, he himself 
commanded him to arise : thus clearly showing that he raised 
the young man from the dead, by a power which was his own. 
So, too, at the grave of Lazarus, "he cried with a loud voice, 
Lazarus, come forth" — without mentioning the father's name. 
It is true, that he previously addressed the father: but this he 
did, as he expressly said, for the sake of those who stood by, 
that they might know that the father had sent him — that is, that 
he proceeded from the father as a sphere from its essence — that 
the father was in him as a soul — that he was born from the father 
— that he acted from the father's power in him as his own, thus 
from a divine power, thus, that he was not a mere man, but a 
divine man. So, again, when he commanded the sick of the 
palsy " to arise, take up his bed, and go his way into his house," 
he did not take care to inform the by-standers, as he should 
have done, if he had been a mere man, that he was exercising 
merely a delegated power from the father; but he did it expressly 
to show that he himself had power on earth to forgive sins, 
which he knew that they were aware was a power which God 
alone could exercise. 

Thus the Lord invariably acted by his own authority and in 
his own strength. And herein he differed from the apostles, 
and all others who are stated, in the Bible, to have manifested 
miraculous powers. For the apostles invariably performed 
miracles in the name of Jesus, as is abundantly seen in the 
record of their acts ; and they always utterly disclaimed honours 
on account of these acts as their own. So Moses performed 
signs and wonders in Egypt in the name of Jehovah, and at 
his express command. And all know that Moses and Aaron 
were not permitted to enter the promised land, because they did 
not " sanctify the Lord in the eyes of the children of Israel," 
when they brought water for them out of the rock. 

Thus, then, it appears, both from his words and his acts, that 
the Lord Jesus Christ had divine virtues in him as his own. 

But, secondly, it appears that Jesus Christ was worshiped 
when on earth, from the fact that people paid him adoration on 



WAS WORSHIPED WHEN Off EARTH. 153 

account of these divine virtues in him as his own. To show 
this fact, all we have to do, is to present those passages of the 
New Testament, in which it is said he was worshiped. 

It will be recollected that the conception and birth of Jesus 
was altogether miraculous. The proceeding divine sphere 
overshadowed the virgin ; and, therefore, that which was con- 
ceived in her was of the holy ghost. The angel of the Lord 
dictated to Joseph the child's name; and he was called Jesus 
because he was to save his people from their sins. Jehovah by 
his prophet had himself foretold this event, in these w r ords : 
" Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, 
and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which, being interpreted, 
is, God-with-us." Thus Jesus in his very conception and birth 
was divine. He was not born of a mere human parent, and 
thus from a mere man at first afterwards made divine : but he 
was divine in the very beginning, and from the instant he was 
brought into the world he was God with us. And his subse- 
quent life on earth was not an acquisition, but a development 
of godhead. Hence, when the wise men from the East, — 
miraculously conducted from Jerusalem to Bethlehem where 
the young child was by a star, — had come into the house and 
seen the young child with Mary his mother, they fell down and 
worshiped him : and when they had opened their treasures, 
they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and 
myrrh." (Matt ii. 11.) Here you see there was profound 
reverence paid to Jesus, and paid to him as God. The wise men 
did not say any thing about the father — they did not say any 
thing about Jesus as the accredited messenger of the father — 
they did not worship the father for his sake; but they " wor- 
shiped him." And they came, propelled by a spiritual in- 
fluence, and led by a miraculous guide, for the purpose of 
worshiping him. They came " from the East to Jerusalem, 
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we 
have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him" 
(ii. 2.) And they came to worship him as God with us — as 
Jesus, who was to save his people from their sins. Thus they 
worshiped him on account of his saving power, which was a 



154 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

divine virtue in him as his own : because he was to save his 
people. Thus do we establish the divinity of Jesus Christ upon 
the letter of his Word. 

Again, in Matt. viii. 2, 3, we find these words: "And behold 
there came a leper, and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou 
wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, 
and touched him, saying, / will ; be thou clean. And imme- 
diately his leprosy was cleansed." Here you see an exercise 
of divine power, proceeding from his own will, without any 
mention of the father. And you behold the prostrate adoration 
of the leper, who worshiped him on this account. He wor- 
shiped him, because he believed he could heal him if he would. 
It was evidently an act of divine adoration, and it was paid to 
Jesus in his proper person. The man evidently meant it as 
such ; and Jesus as evidently received it as such. 

In Matt. ix. 18, it is said, " Behold there came a certain ruler, 
and worshiped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead : 
but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live." Here 
reverence was paid to the Lord, because it was believed he 
could raise the dead to life, which is a divine power. And as 
there was no mention made of God as distinct from Jesus, either 
by the ruler or by Jesus, it is evident that this reverence was 
paid to Jesus himself, on account of this divine power. 

In the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, is this remarkable re- 
lation : " And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to 
get into a ship, and to go before him unto the other side, while 
he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the mul- 
titudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray : and 
when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship 
was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves : for the 
wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night, 
Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the dis- 
ciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, 
It is a spirit : and they cried out for fear. But straightway 
Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer : it is I ; be 
not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be 
thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. 



WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 155 

And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on 
the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boiste- 
rous, he was afraid ; and, beginning to sink, he cried, saying, 
Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his 
hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, 
wherefore didst thou doubt ? And when they were come into 
the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship 
came and ivorshiped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son 
of God. 5 " This passage needs no comment. There can be no 
doubt, that, whatever we at the present time may think of 
Jesus, they, at that day, worshiped him as a divine being. 

In the fifteenth chapter, is the account of a woman of Canaan, 
who came unto Jesus, saying, " Have mercy on me, Lord, thou 
son of David ; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. 
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and 
besought him saying, Send her away ; for she crieth after us. 
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel. Then came she, and worshiped him, 
saying, Lord, help me." And after her great importunity had 
drawn from the Lord the exclamation " O woman, great is thy 
faith !" he said, tC be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her 
daughter was made whole from that very hour." Here you see 
the Lord supplicated for mercy, which is a divine gift ; and 
adoration paid to him on account of his power of casting out 
devils: a power exercised in this case without the bodily pre- 
sence of the person from whom the devil was cast out. Which 
circumstance strikingly evinces the divine power of the Lord, 
and, together with other instances, peculiarly distinguishes his 
acts from the miraculous operations of mere human agents. 
For this circumstance shows that bodily presence was not ne- 
cessary for the exercise of his power ; and thus indicates his 
omnipresence. 

As to the Lord's being sent unto the lost sheep of the house 
of Israel, we are not to infer from this any separation of indi- 
viduality ; because this word sent is to be understood in a 
spiritual sense, We are to suppose that the father sends the 
son, not as one person sends another person, from one part of 



156 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

space to another, but as a cause sends its effect — thus as the 
soul forms to itself a body, or as affection sends thought, and 
thought speech. In fact, the son is an emanation of the hidden, 
the invisible and the unapproachable divine essence, by which 
that essence is brought forth and made apprehensible and per- 
ceptible to human minds. Hence the father sends the son as 
any emanating body sends its emanation — thus as a luminous 
body sends light. And in spiritual language, Israel represents 
the spiritual church, that is, the church as to the love, under- 
standing and life of truth. House signifies good. Thus house 
of Israel signifies the good of the spiritual church. Sheep sig- 
nifies innocence. Lost sheep, one who is in error or false 
principles innocently — thus one who is in a fallen state by 
hereditary transmission without known, voluntary and actual 
transgression. Therefore, the Lord's being sent to the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel, means an out-birth of the divine 
essence, whereby the essential divine qualities of goodness and 
of truth were accommodated to the good or well-disposed of 
the spiritual church, who were in a fallen state. And hence, 
when the Lord Jesus says, he was sent, it does not imply that 
he is separate from the father. 

Wherefore, when the woman, crying for mercy, worshiped 
Jesus, she evidently regarded him as the fountain of mercy, 
thus as one with God. Mercy is a divine virtue. The woman 
supposed this virtue to be in Jesus. And therefore she wor- 
shiped him. Thus it is seen by this example that Jesus was 
worshiped on earth on account of a divine virtue supposed to 
be in him as his own. 

Having read to you the chapter from which our text is taken, 
I need not repeat to you the context. Considering the view 
which his followers had had of his character — considering that 
they had heard him speak as never man spake — had witnessed 
his performance of acts which a divine being alone could per- 
form — had heard his express declarations that he was one with 
the father, and, of course, was God— had beheld the dazzling 
splendour of his divine countenance when transfigured on the 
mount — had seen the veil of the temple rent, the heavens hung 



WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 157 

in black, the sun turned to blood, and the quaking earth by its 
convulsions bearing trembling testimony to the awful consum- 
mation of his crucifixion — considering all this, need we wonder, 
that, on beholding him again, risen from the dead, and, doubt- 
less, beaming fuller divine majesty from his disencumbered 
body, they should prostrate themselves in the profoundest 
veneration ? And while we behold them clasping his feet, can 
we doubt that they are worshiping him as God? 

It is said, in the seventeenth verse, that the eleven, having 
gone away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had ap- 
pointed them, when they saw him, worshiped him : but some 
doubted. It does not say of what they doubted — whether it 
was of the reality of his existence or of his being the divine 
person which they supposed him to be. The fact of his ascen- 
sion from the dead might have appeared to them an illusion. 
They might have supposed his appearance an apparition. Or 
supposing him to be really alive, the appearance that he was a 
mere man being still so strong, they might have doubted that 
he was the divine being which his whole life on earth, and eyen 
the circumstances attending his crucifixion, had declared him 
to be. Probably they doubted in both these respects. And 
without question, the unbelieving Thomas was among the some 
who doubted here. But, if we turn to the twentieth chapter of 
John, we shall see how effectually his doubts were removed. 

" And, after eight days, again his disciples were within, and 
Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, 
and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then 
said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my 
hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side : 
and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and 
said unto him, My Lord, and my God." Mark Thomas's an- 
swer — " My Lord, and my God." Can there be any question 
now that Thomas considered Jesus Christ as God ? And hence 
can there be any question that the other disciples, who were 
less unbelieving than he, when they worshiped Jesus worshiped 
him as God? When, therefore, Luke says, (xxiv. 52,) " And 

15 



158 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

he led them out as far as Bethany ; and he lifted up his hands 
and blessed them — And it came to pass, while he blessed them, 
he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven — And they 
worshiped him;" we are to understand that they paid adora- 
tion to him as a divine being. 

The last instance, which we shall notice, in which it is 
expressly said that Jesus was worshiped, is in John, ix. 38. 
Nearly the whole of the chapter is taken up in giving an 
account of his restoring to sight a man who was born blind, 
and the fermentation which this produced among the Jews. 
They tried to prevail upon the man to " give God the praise," 
by denying that Jesus had wrought this miracle upon him. But 
he persisted in thinking, and argued to convince them, that 
Jesus was the Christ ; until, indignant at the thought that he, 
" who was altogether born in sin, should presume to teach 
them," they cast him out. And when Jesus heard that they 
had cast him out, and had found him, he said unto him, "Dost 
thou believe on the Son of God ? He answered and said, Who 
is he, Lord, that I might believe on him ? And Jesus said unto 
him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with 
thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him." 
This instance furnishes direct and incontrovertible evidence 
that Jesus Christ was worshiped when upon earth. For the 
worship in this case was reverence paid to him not as a mere 
man, or as a prophet, or as a man highly gifted of God ; for 
he that had been blind believed Jesus to be all this before he 
revealed himself to him as the Son of God ; but it was reve- 
rence paid to him as the Son of God, that is, as the brightness 
of God's glory, the express image of his substance, the bodily 
manifestation of his whole godhead ; thus as one with God, as 
God himself. When, then, this man worshiped Jesus, he paid 
him divine adoration, on account of divine virtues in him as his 
own 

Thus it appears conclusively, that the Lord Jesus Christ was 
worshiped when on earth ; both from the fact that he had divine 
virtues in him as his own, and from the fact that adoration was 



WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 159 

paid to him on account of them. And thus we hare shown, 
on scriptural authority, that Jesus Christ ought to be worshiped, 
and that he was worshiped when on earth. 

Since, then, Jesus Christ was worshiped directly when on 
earth, we cannot be far wrong, who worship him now he is in 
heaven, and has, as he expressly assures us, " all power in 
heaven and on earth." But let all those who worship the 
father directly, by praying to him out of Jesus Christ, instead 
of worshiping the father in Jesus Christ, by praying to Jesus 
Christ himself as the father — beware lest they perish because 
they kiss not the son. And especially let those who are de- 
grading the Lord Jesus to the level of a mere man, see well to 
it, that they are not committing that sin which can never be 
forgiven, either in this world or that which is to come ! 



S ERMON X, 



KEV. V. 13. 

" Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth 
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.' , 

Having proved from the Word that the three essential con- 
stituents of God are in Jesus Christ, that all the divine attri- 
butes are ascribed to him, that, therefore, he is the proper ob- 
ject of christian worship, and that he was actually worshiped 
when on earth, we come now, in the regular course of our 
series, to show that he is worshiped in heaven, and, conse- 
quently, must be presumed to have been the object of apostolic 
worship. For as Paul, the chief of the apostles, was caught up 
into the third heaven, he must have had his views of the proper 
object of his worship on earth, very much, if not wholly deter- 
mined by what he saw in the heavens. Hence, if Jesus Christ 
is worshiped in the heavens, and Paul was permitted to see and 
to know that fact, it is most presumable that his worship on 
earth would be after the pattern of that heavenly worship which 
he had seen, as it were, upon the mount. And it cannot be 
doubted that his views and practices in this respect, would be 
those also of the other apostles. Besides, as they that live and 
worship in heaven, once existed on earth,* and have carried 
with them the ideas of God by which their earthly character 
was formed, and the essential principles of worship with which 
their earthly life was replete, hence those that worshiped the 
Lord on earth will of course worship him in heaven ; and, there- 

* " The angel which showed me these things, then saith unto me, See 
thou do it not : for i" am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets" 
(Rev. xxii. 8, 9.) 



JESUS CHRIST IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 161 

fore, the fact that Jesus Christ is now worshiped in heaven 
must go hand in hand with the other fact that he was worshiped 
when on earth ; and the fact that he was both worshiped on 
earth and is worshiped in heaven must he inseparably connected 
with the supposition that he was the God of the apostles. 
Hence the proof of either of these positions will be but the con- 
firmation of the others. And hence we shall now blend these 
topics in some degree together. 

Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, (i. 6,) quoting from the 
Word of the Old Testament, most fully ascribes a divine cha- 
racter to the Lord Jesus, and, in express reference to him, 
represents Jehovah, when bringing the first begotten into the 
world, as saying, " And let all the angels of God worship him.'' 
This proves that Jesus Christ is the object of angelic worship, 
and therefore renders more intensive the argument that the 
reverence paid to Jesus when on earth was divine adoration. 
We have, then, the greater boldness in assuming and maintain- 
ing that the attitude of adoration was assumed before Jesus 
Christ on earth because of his manifestation of a divine cha- 
racter, and not, as some in the present day pertinaciously main- 
tain, because that was the attitude of respect to superior power 
and excellence ordinarily assumed by the people of eastern 
countries in ancient times. And the best proof of this is that 
the Lord Jesus always received the divine honour of worship 
as paid to himself without referring it to any superior bein^. 
In not one of the many passages which we have heretofore 
cited from the Word to prove that he was worshiped when on 
earth, did he forbid the prostration of the body before him, or 
any other act of worship, although he well knew the express 
command of Jehovah to be, " Thou shalt have no other gods 
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or that is in 
the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth : 
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." 
(Exod. xx. 3 — 5.) And again, u Thou shalt worship the Lord 
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matt. iv. 10.) 
Hence he could not have permitted these acts of worship, if, 

15* 



162 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

as some suppose, he had been a mere man, or if he had been 
any other than the very God. For admitting — and from the 
passages cited there can be no doubt — that this worship was di- 
vine adoration, he, as a messenger sent from God, or as any 
being subordinate to God, could not have received it, and yet 
be a good man. 

It matters not to say that the prostration of the body by per- 
sons of inferior rank when they approached persons high in 
authority or conspicuous for their dignity and virtue was an 
eastern custom prevalent in our Lord's day, because, except in 
cases of idolatry, this prostration was not considered as divine 
honour, while in the case of Jesus there was none of that dig- 
nified elevation of worldly rank, those trappings of royalty, or 
that pomp of circumstance, which would command ceremonial 
reverence. He was a despised Nazarene— a man of low estate 
— reputed a carpenter's son ; and it was only the display of 
divine virtue, which emanated from his person and beamed from 
his character, which prostrated before him the healed, the 
blessed and the gladdened subjects of his miraculous power- 
Hence this attitude was assumed before him as divine adoration. 
This distinction should be attended to. It is true, that, in 
eastern countries, subjects did then, and do still, prostrate them- 
selves in the presence of their sovereigns or those high in power 
and authority. But, except in cases of gross ignorance, this 
honour was not paid to the sovereign, or other dignitary, on 
account of any divine excellence supposed to be his own. And 
we see that, in the case of Jesus Christ, this honour could not 
have been paid to him for the same reason that it was paid to 
eastern potentates, or others high in power or station, because, 
as he himself expressly says, his kingdom is not of this world. 
Therefore the honour paid to him must have been on account 
of divine virtues in him as his own, and thus to him as a divine 
being. Here, then, is the difference : prostration of the body 
as an eastern custom was a deference paid to rank without any 
reference to an exercise of divine power; but in the case of our 
Lord this attitude was assumed before him because " he spake 
as never man spake," and " did works which he could not have 



IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 163 

done unless God had been with him." And as Jesus did not 
refer to a superior being the honour thus paid to himself, it is 
evident that it was paid to him himself, and received by him as 
God. 

This distinction is clearly seen in the Sacred Scriptures 
throughout. Wherever the prostration of one man before an- 
other is mentioned in the Word, it is manifest from the context 
that this is not honour paid to him as God. Thus, although it 
is said in Daniel, (ii. 46,) that " the king Nebuchadnezzar fell 
upon his face and worshiped Daniel," yet it is evident that this 
worship was not paid to Daniel as God ; for it is said, in the 
next verse, by the king, " Of a truth it is that your God is a 
God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, see- 
ing thou couldst reveal this secret." Thus the honour was 
expressly referred to Daniel's God, and therefore not paid to 
Daniel himself. It was paid to Daniel because he was a repre- 
sentative person — was sustaining that prophetic office by which 
the Word of Truth, which is the Lord, was brought down to 
men — thus was in the Lord's place, that he permitted the pros- 
tration of the body before him. He allowed it as a becoming 
deference to the divine truth, which he represented. But when- 
ever worship was about to be paid to mere men as divine 
adoration, we find that they invariably forbade it. Thus in 
Acts, x. 25, 26, when the devout Cornelius, — commanded by 
an angel to send for Peter, " as Peter was coming in, — met him, 
and fell down at his feet, and worshiped :" it is said, " Peter 
took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man." 

In this case, Peter evidently discovered that Cornelius was 
paying him adoration on account of some supposed divine vir- 
tue ; and conscious that he was but a man, or an apostle, he 
could not allow that reverence to be paid to him which was due 
only to God. Had it been only a mark of respect for his office, 
he might have permitted it as Daniel did. But he discovered 
more than mere respect : he perceived religious veneration. 
And hence he bade him " Stand up :" reminding him that he 
also was a man. 

And here you see the contrast between Peter and the Lord* 



164 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

In no case did Jesus Christ forbid the worship which was paid 
to him : though there can be no doubt that it would have been 
as improper for him to have permitted it, as for Peter, if he had 
been a mere man ; for there cannot be a shadow of doubt that 
the worship which was paid to Jesus was at least as much di- 
vine worship as this which was offered to Peter. 

All must recollect, too, the case of Paul and Barnabas, as 
recorded in Acts, xiv. 8 — 15. 

In this case the worship was manifestly about to be offered 
to Paul and Barnabas as gods. And these apostles, so far from 
allowing it, discountenanced it with the most violent demonstra- 
tions of disapprobation — " They rent their clothes, and ran in 
among the people crying out" to them and dissuading them from 
doing sacrifice to them who were men of like passions with 
themselves. How different this conduct from that of the Lord 
Jesus ! who not only did not prevent those who prostrated 
themselves before him as God ; but, when the Jews accused 
him of blasphemy, because he (in their estimation) being a 
man, made himself equal with God, began to justify himself by 
showing his unity with the father, and thus his identity w 7 ith 
God. Nay, he even allowed himself to be crucified by the 
Jews on this very charge of blasphemy, because he called him- 
self the Son of God, that is, the visible manifestation of God, — 
and predicted that they would see him, as the Son of Man, sit- 
ting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of 
heaven," (Matt. xxvi. 65) — that is, possessing the omnipotence 
of divine love in and through the spirit of truth in the letter of 
his Word. 

Take, as another example, the case of John, in the Apoca- 
lypse, who fell at the feet of the angel to worship him, under 
the impression that he was God. And the angel said unto him, 
ft See thou do it not : I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy 
brethren that have the testimony of Jesus : worship God." 
(Rev. xix. 10.) You here see that an angel, a commissioned 
messenger of the Lord to his beloved apostle, would not receive 
that honour which was due to God only : while it is remarka- 
ble that when this same John fell at the feet of the Son of Man, 



IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 165 

(i. 17,) who manifestly was the Lord Jesus Christ, he did not 
forbid this act, and tell John to worship God, as a being 
separate from himself; but, laying his right hand upon him, 
said unto him, " Fear not ; i" am the First and the Last :" thus 
receiving the worship ; and directly asserting that he was God. 

Seeing, then, that an angel as a commissioned messenger of 
God, would not permit John to prostrate himself before him, 
and yet that Jesus did allow this prostration before him, it fol- 
lows that Jesus was more than a messenger of God — was God 
himself in an ultimate form. Wherefore, we presume it is evi- 
dent to every reflecting mind, that the veneration which was 
paid to Jesus Christ when on earth was divine worship. And 
therefore it is clear that Jesus Christ was worshiped as God 
when on earth. 

Now a reference to the Apocalypse will prove as clearly that 
he is also worshiped in heaven. The instance just cited, in 
which John in spirit fell prostrate before him as dead, goes to 
prove this. In the fourth chapter, John describes the throne of 
God in heaven and one sitting on it. He speaks of four and 
twenty seats round about the throne, and of four and twenty 
elders sitting thereon ; which we may suppose to be a represen- 
tative form of all who are in the heavens. And, in the conclu- 
sion of the chapter, he says that these " four and twenty elders 
fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him 
that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the 
throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, 
and honour, and power ; for thou hast created all things, and 
for thy pleasure they are and were created." (verses 10, 11.) 
Now who was this one that sat upon the throne of God ? In 
John, i. 18, it is said, " No man hath seen God at any time ; 
the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he hath 
declared him." And Jesus himself says of the father, (John, v. 
37,) " Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen 
his shape." But on another occasion, when Philip had asked 
him to show them the father, he replied, " He that hath seen 
me, hath seen the father." (John, xiv. 8.) And John in this 
vision saw the shape of him that sat on the throne. He that 



166 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

sat upon the throne, then, was Jesus Christ, the only begotten 
son who manifests the father. Paul, too, in his Epistle to Timo- 
thy, (vi. 15,) speaks of " our Lord Jesus Christ," as of him, 
who, " in his times, shall show who is the blessed and only 
Potentate, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords ; who only 
hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can ap. 
proach unto ; which no man hath seen, nor can see." Thus he 
shows that Jesus Christ is he who manifests the invisible and 
unapproachable God. And hence it is clear that he who sat 
upon the throne of God was Jesus Christ: and thus that Jesus 
Christ was worshiped by the four and twenty elders, who repre- 
sented all who are in the heavens. 

This is clear, too, from its being said that they " worship 
him that liveth for ever and ever." For the Son of Man, who 
is manifestly Jesus Christ in his glorified body, says to John, 
(i. 18,) u I am he that liveth and was dead ; and behold, I am 
alive for evermore." And still more clear from its being said 
by the elders to him who sitteth on the throne " for thou hast 
created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were crea- 
ted." For Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, says expressly 
of Jesus Christ, " by him were all things created that are in 
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether 
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all 
things were created by him and for him." Thus he that sat 
upon the throne and Jesus Christ are clearly identified. Hence, 
when the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sit- 
teth upon the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and 
ever, they worship the Son of Man, who is Jesus Christ. 

Again, in the chapter that contains our text, John, after say 
ing, in the sixth verse, " And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of 
the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, 
stood a Lamb as it had been slain," &c. — says in the thirteenth 
verse, " And every creature which is in heaven, and on the 
earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all 
that are in them, heard I saying, "Blessing, and honour, and 
glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Now by the Lamb in this pas- 



IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEX. 167 

sage is evidently meant Jesus Christ as to that human nature, or 
in that character of divine human innocence, in which he was 
rejected by the church on earth : for it is said " a Lamb, as it 
had been slain:" and Jesus is expressly styled by John the 
Baptist, " the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
world." (John, i. 29.) And thus it is clearly seen that the uni- 
versal heavens worship Jesus Christ. For they ascribe bless- 
ing, and honour, and glory, and power unto the Lamb. 

It may be asked, why the Lamb is mentioned as distinct 
from him who sat upon the throne, and if he that sat upon the 
throne signifies Jesus, how is it that the Lamb also signifies 
Jesus ? Does not he that sat upon the throne signify the father 
and the Lamb represent Jesus as distinct from him ? Even ad- 
mitting this ; still it is seen that the Lamb is worshiped equally 
with him who sits upon the throne. And thus our position is 
proved that Jesus Christ is worshiped in heaven. But we have 
shown that he who sat upon the throne could not signify the 
father ; because he was seen by John, and no man hath seen 
the father, and no man can see him in his essence, and live. 
But the father may be seen in his form ; and he is seen in 
Jesus Christ, for he is the " form of God," thinking it " not 
robbery to be equal with God," because he is the " express 
image of his substance." It was, therefore, Jesus Christ, the 
son who reveals the father, that sat upon the throne. And the 
Lamb which was seen in the midst of the throne, did not repre- 
sent a being or person separate from Jesus, but a part of his 
complex nature, considered abstractly for the sake of the illus- 
tration and instruction of John, and of the church through him. 
The Lamb here was a kind of hieroglyphical or representative 
imaging of the human nature of Christ, considered abstractly 
or distinctively from his divine nature, which was represented 
by him who sat upon the throne. It was not that there is in 
fact any separation of these natures in Christ ; but it was only 
a distinct consideration of these natures, as we have said, for 
illustration and instruction : just as, comparatively, the length 
of a room is considered as separate from its breadth and depth 
in an algebraic process for the determination of its solid contents. 



168 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

In that case the length is only a property of the room con- 
sidered abstractly from its other properties. Just so in the case 
before us, the Lamb represents a property of the Lord's nature 
considered abstractly from his other properties. It represents 
his human nature considered abstractly from his divine nature* 
But this representation no more signifies that his human nature 
exists separately from his divine nature, than the mere abstract 
consideration of its length would imply that the length of the 
room exists independently of the room itself. And the divine 
and human natures together — thus He that sitteth upon the 
throne and the Lamb — form the one person of the one God, 
just as the length, breadth and height of the room form together 
the common properties of the room, and are inseparable from 
the room itself. Thus, then, when it is said, " Blessing, and 
honour, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth on the 
throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever," it is an ascrip- 
tion of divine honours to both the divine and human natures of 
Christ — that is, to the divine in his human nature ; and thus 
an entire and a full worship of him. And as this is said to be 
rendered to him by all in all the heavens, it is seen that the 
prophetic command of Jehovah as quoted by Paul is accom- 
plished — " Let all the angels of God worship him." 

This command was uttered by Jehovah in reference mani- 
festly to Jesus Christ, because he undoubtedly was " the first- 
begotten into the world." And as Jesus Christ is worshiped by 
all the angels of God, it is only expressing the same thing in 
other words to say he is worshiped in heaven. Wherefore, we 
deem ourselves justified on scriptural grounds in asserting, not 
only that Jesus Christ was worshiped when on earth, but also 
that he is now worshiped in heaven. 

And now as to the fact that Jesus was worshiped by the 
apostles. We shall discuss this topic more at length in a sub- 
sequent discourse. And in introducing the subject here, we 
will recall attention to the remarkable instance of Thomas, who 
was one of the eleven, in that memorable exclamation of his — 
" My Lord, and my God !" This puts it beyond any question 
that Thomas, at least, considered Jesus Christ as God. The 



IS NOW WORSHIPED IX HEAVEN. 169 

answer to this argument which is made by some, that Thomas 
herein only expresses his surprise and wonder at seeing the 
Lord alive after he had supposed him dead, is too futile to need 
refutation. Such expositions of the Word of God are too mani- 
festly paltry to deserve notice. It is very clear from all the 
circumstances that Thomas was aroused from a state of doubt, 
and hereby makes a declaration of his faith, that Jesus Christ 
is God. And what right have we to suppose that he was the 
only one of the Lord's chosen apostles who so regarded him ? 
Nay should we not reason from their being less unbelieving 
than Thomas, that the other disciples had a clearer perception 
of the Lord's divinity than he, and hence were more ready to 
acknowledge him as the Divine Being ? And consequently, 
when it is stated in the Scriptures that they worshiped Jesus, 
must we not suppose that they worshiped him as God 1 When, 
therefore, Luke says, (xxiv. 52,) " And he led them out as far 
as Bethany ; and he lifted up his hands and blessed them — 
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from 
them, and carried up into heaven — And they worshiped him;" 
we are to understand that they paid adoration to him as a 
divine being. And thus we conclude that the Lord's eleven 
disciples considered him as their God. 

We might argue that the apostles regarded Jesus as God from 
the fact that they performed miracles in his name. For who 
ever heard of real miracles being performed in any other name 
than that of God ? But we will say nothing about this, and 
will advert on the present occasion only to the case of Stephen, 
who was stoned to death as recorded in the seventh chapter of 
Acts. It will be recollected that Stephen was one of the seven 
deacons appointed for the daily ministration of the temporal 
concerns of the church, and that he was "a man full of faith 
and of the holy ghost." Hence his example is equivalent to 
that of the apostles. It will be recollected also that he foiled 
certain persons of the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cy- 
renians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Asia, 
in disputation ; that they suborned men to accuse him falsely 
of blasphemy ; that, in defending himself against this charge, 

16 



170 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

he reprehended them for their rebellion and for murdering 
Christ : whereupon they stoned him to death. " When they 
heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed 
on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the holy ghost, 
looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, 
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, 
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing 
on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud 
voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one ac- 
cord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him : and the 
witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose 
name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, 
and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled 
down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to 
their charge ! And when he had said this, he fell asleep." 

Now you will observe it is said, in verse 59, " they stoned 
Stephen calling upon God." But the word God is not in the 
original. It is evident that he was calling upon the being whom 
he saw, and to whom he spoke, namely, the Lord Jesus. It 
was the Lord Jesus then, to whom he kneeled down and 
prayed not to lay this sin to their charge : thus showing that 
he regarded Jesus as the being who remits sins, which God alone 
can do. And he expressly calls on the Lord Jesus to receive 
his spirit. And who can receive the spirit but God, who 
gave it ? 

Compare this passage with Psalm xxxi. 5, " Into thine hand 
I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." 
Here you see the psalmist, who speaks in prophetic allusion to 
the Lord Jesus, commits his spirit into the hands of " the Lord 
God." The fulfilment of this prophetic allusion is recorded in 
Luke, xxiii. 46, " And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, 
he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." But 
this needs some explanation. For it may be asked, if Jesus 
Christ committed his spirit into the hands of the Lord God, how 
then can he himself be God? And to explain this matter, we 
must anticipate the contents of a future discourse. 

Jesus, when on earth, was continually engaged in combating 



IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 171 

the false and evil principles of the human nature which he had 
assumed from the mother Mary. And when he was in that 
human nature, — that is, when he was thinking and feeling in 
the external plane of his mind, — he would address his internal, 
or the father, as a being separate from himself; when, never- 
theless, his internal was intimately connected with his external, 
and was that divine energy of love and wisdom which at all 
times enabled him to overcome the false thoughts and evil feel- 
ings of his external man. 

The case is similar with an ordinary man. He has an exter- 
nal and an internal. In his internal are those feelings of re- 
ligious love and those motives of wisdom and virtue by which 
he regulates his speech and actions, which are his external. 
And it is often the case, when he is in his external, that is, in 
the sphere of mere bodily or animal thought and feeling, he is 
tempted to say and do those things which are contrary to the 
dictates of the wisdom and virtue that form his internal. How 
often is it the case that a man in the excitement of mere natural 
feeling, says and does things, for which he is sorry in his cool, 
rational moments. In this case his internal appears to be sepa- 
rate from him : when, in fact, it is now more present with him 
than ever. For, if his internal principles were not acting on 
him as a conscience of right and wrong, he would, like a mere 
animal, go on in the indulgence of his sensual appetites without 
any compunction. And when his internal thus appears to be 
separate from him, he often addresses it as if it were another 
person. Hence we hear David addressing his soul as a being 
separate from him — " Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and 
why art thou disquieted in me ? hope thou in God ; for I shall 
yet praise him, the help of his countenance." (Ps. xlii. 5.) And 
how often do we find ourselves, in a burst of strong feeling, ad- 
dressing our heart, in some such way as this, "Oh my heart, 
thou hast deceived me !" Or when a man makes a miscalcu- 
lation, how prone is he to say, "My head missed it that time !" 

These observations are made to show, that, though the Lord 
Jesus addresses the father as a being separate from him, it is only 
an appearance resulting from the circumstances of trial in which 



172 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

his mere human nature was then placed. For, in the nature of 
things, the human nature appeared to have life in itself, without 
any distinct vision of the inward divine life from which it was 
begotten, and by which it was continually sustained, in all its 
temptations, until its full glorification with that glory which it 
had with the father before the world began. For it is a law of 
order that internal life shall seem to be in the external form of 
it — the efficient cause of life shall seem to be in the instrumental 
cause of it; and hence the human nature of the Lord, while it was 
undergoing temptations, seemed to be left alone in its com- 
bats with the powers of evil — though in fact the divine nature 
was then most intimately present in it, giving it strength to 
conquer, and becoming so completely united with it in its con- 
quest as to become distinctly one with it, and transfuse it with 
its own glory, gift it with its own life and deify it with all its 
own divinity. Thus, although the humanity of Jesus Christ 
seemed at times to be separate from the divinity within it, and 
to be subordinate to that divinity, still this was only an appear- 
ance ; for, in reality, it was so completely one with the divinity 
as to be itself divine. Hence the Lord Jesus himself says, M J 
and my father are one." — " As the father hath life in himself 
so hath he given to the son to have life in himself." — " There- 
fore doth my father love me, because / lay down my life, that 
I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it 
down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have 
power to take it again. This commandment have I received 
of my father." (x. 17, 18.) These passages show clearly that 
there was divine life and power in the humanity itself, and that 
its human infirmity, inferiority and subordination to divinity 
was but an appearance incident to the state into which divinity 
had voluntarily come for human redemption and salvation — 
incident to that state into which it had come to be a type or en- 
sampler of man's regeneration and salvation. For the Lord's 
humanity was glorified just as a man's external is brought into 
order. A man's external, — that is, his speech and actions, — 
is reduced to order by putting off or desisting from all that is 
contrary to the dictates of wisdom and virtue. So the Lord's 



IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 173 

humanity was glorified by his putting off or desisting from all that 
was corrupt in mere human nature, and by his acting from the 
dictates of divine love and divine wisdom, which were the father 
within him. It was this corrupt human nature, with its corporeal 
body, which died on the cross, and not the divine body of the 
Lord, which was in it, and which was seen at his transfigura- 
tion on the mount — that could not be crucified or die because 
it was divine. And this corporeal body died, and with it all 
the corrupt principles of human nature were put off, that the 
Lord might exist fully and solely in his glorified body, which 
was afterwards seen and worshiped by his disciples as his di- 
vine human form. But, before this corporeal body or corrupt 
humanity was put off, there was contrariety between it and the 
Lord's internal principles of love and wisdom, which were the 
father within him ; and while the Lord was still thinking and 
feeling in this corrupt humanity, his internal principles, or the 
father, appeared to be separate from him ; and under the strength 
of this appearance he addressed the father as a separate being. 
But the father was, in fact, no more separate from him than 
David's soul was from David, or my heart and head from me. 

Hence, when the Lord gave his spirit up to the father, it was 
his human consciousness yielding itself entirely up to his divine 
consciousness ; and by that act it was signified that there was 
an entire conjunction between the divine and human natures of 
Christ, because all that was contrary to the divinity being put 
off, the humanity became entirely one with the father, and was 
thus an unresisting and unperverting medium of divine love and 
divine wisdom. 

When, then, the mere humanity of the Lord gave up its 
spirit to the father, it was shown that the father is the being to 
whom the spirits of men are to be commended : and hence 
that God only is the being who can receive the spirits of men. 
Wherefore, when Stephen called upon the Lord Jesus to receive 
his spirit, it is clear that he considered him as the father ; con- 
sequently, as God. And thus it is manifest that Stephen wor- 
shiped the Lord Jesus as his God. And this proves collaterally 
that Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles. 

16* 



174 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST 

But it may be objected here, that Stephen saw the glory o 
God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God : which im- 
plies that Jesus was separate and distinct from God, and of 
course could not be God himself. In answer to this, we can 
only observe, as heretofore, that Stephen saw with his spiritual 
eyes opened ; and hence that which he saw was a representa- 
tion in the spiritual world, similar to those representations 
which John saw in vision, and which he has described in the 
Apocalypse. For Stephen saw u the Son of Man standing on 
the right hand of God." And John (Apoc. iv. 2) beheld a 
throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne, who was 
evidently the same whom he had before described as " one like 
unto the Son of Man standing in the midst of the seven golden 
candlesticks." (i. 13.) Hence it is clear that this representation 
to the eye of Stephen is to be explained in the same way that 
those are which were seen by John. And as, from the representa- 
tion made to John of one sitting on the throne with a Lamb in 
the midst of the throne, we are not to suppose that He who sat 
upon the throne and the Lamb are separate and distinct beings ; 
so neither are we, from this representation to Stephen of Jesus 
standing on the right hand of God, to suppose that Jesus and 
God are separate and distinct beings. 

That this was but a mere representation, is clear from its 
being said that Stephen saw the Son of Man standing on the 
right hand of God : which, if supposed to be a presentation of 
a real truth, would imply that he saw God, on the right hand 
of whom the Son of Man stood. But it is elsewhere said, " No 
man hath seen God at any time." It was not, then, really God 
whom Stephen saw. And, of course, it was not really the Son 
of Man whom he saw standing on the right hand of God. 
Consequently it was only a representation of God and of the 
Son of Man. And of the meaning of this representation 
Stephen doubtless had an intuitive perception. He, without 
doubt, perceived that the right hand represents power, because 
man's right hand is the member by which his power is exer- 
cised. Hence he perceived that the right hand of God signifies 
the power of God ; and of course that the Son of Man standing 
oa the right hand of God signified that Jesus, who was repre- 



IS ICOW WORSHIPED IX HEAVEtf. 175 

sented by the Son of Man, had the power of God : which is 
" all power in heaven and on earth." Thus he perceived, from 
this representation, that Jesus was God himself. And hence he 
called upon him and said, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 

In this vision, we should particularly observe, that Stephen, in 
his prayer, did not address the glory, but the Son of Man which 
was standing on the right hand of the glory: thus he addressed 
the Lord Jesus directly, and prayed to him to forgive his per- 
secutors this sin. From which it follows that the Lord Jesus 
had the same relation to Stephen in his prayer, which the father 
had to the Lord's humanity in his prayer on the cross. And 
hence that the Lord Jesus was the father in the view of Ste- 
phen. But, to say nothing of that, it is clear that Stephen prayed 
to the Lord Jesus to forgive his persecutors their sin. And 
hence, as no one can forgive sins but God, it is clear that he 
worshiped the Lord Jesus as his God. Thus this single ex- 
ample will of itself suffice to show from the Acts of the Apos- 
tles that Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles. 

We might also prove from ecclesiastical history, that the 
early Christians in general were in the habit of addressing 
prayers, and singing hymns, and offering up all their acts of 
public worship to Jesus Christ as God. For it is well known 
that some of them suffered persecution and martyrdom on this 
very account. But this does not come within our present plan. 
And we shall only further confirm the truth we have now es- 
tablished by adverting in our following discourses to the Epistles 
of the Apostles ; all of which, we doubt not, will show that the 
apostles regarded Jesus Christ as their God. 

We have not time now to indulge in any reflections upon 
this important subject. And we will only beg you to mark 
attentively that Stephen called on the Lord Jesus to receive his 
spirit. There was the glory of God, and the Son of Man 
standing on the right hand of it. Yet Stephen did not address 
himself to God as the glory, but prayed to Jesus himself. And 
while you are reflecting upon this most important fact, we will 
conclude with simply this solemn injunction — " Go, and do 
thou likewise /" 



SERMON XI 



ISAIAH, XLV. 23. 



« I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righte- 
ousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every 
tongue shall swear." 

In our last discourse, we showed, from the recorded acts of 
the apostles, as exemplified in the case of Stephen when about 
to be stoned to death, that they paid to Jesus divine adoration. 
For it was to be inferred from this instance of " a man," ac- 
knowledged to be " full of faith and the holy ghost," praying 
directly to Jesus as a divine being, that the apostles also, by 
whose instructions and instrumentality this man had been 
brought into the church, must have regarded Jesus in the same 
light, and thus must have worshiped him as God. It remains 
for us, in this and the following discourse, to discuss this topic 
at length. The drift of our argument will be, that the apostles 
have used language in their Epistles, in reference to the Lord 
Jesus, which they could not have used unless they had con- 
sidered him as God. 

But it must be admitted that, in arguing this point, we have 
to encounter difficulties. It cannot be denied that the apostles 
so speak of Jesus Christ in connection with the father as if they 
considered them personally separate. It is undoubtedly true, 
that they make a distinction between Jesus and the father. 
And though, by pointing out the grounds and nature of that 
distinction, we should show clearly that it did not conflict with 
the idea of Jesus and the father being one person, yet still the 
question might arise in the minds of some, if the apostles had 
this idea in their minds, why did they not state it plainly ? 



JESUS CHRIST WAS THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 177 

Admitting, then, that the apostles in some passages of their 
writings clearly indicate that they considered Jesus Christ as 
God, an answer must be given to the inquiry, why do they not 
state this in express language, and why do they in other parts 
of their writings speak of him as a man to all appearance per- 
sonally distinct from the Lord God? 

In the conduct of this discourse, therefore, it is our intention 
to make cursory quotations from the Epistles of all the apostles 
except John — -to explain the ground arid nature of the apparent 
distinction which the apostles make between Jesus and the 
father — to suggest the probability that they meant by the terms 
father, son and holy ghost a distinction of principles in the 
godhead — and finally to answer the question, why they did not 
speak plainly of the Lord's unity with the father, when they 
themselves saw it clearly. 

The limits of one discourse will not allow us to quote all the 
passages in the writings of the apostles which go to show that 
they regarded the Lord Jesus as their God. We shall there- 
fore select some of the most prominent. 

In writing to the Romans, Paul has these words, (ch. ix. 5,) 
" Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, 
Christ came, who is over all, God, blessed for ever." Here is 
a direct assertion that Christ is God. We are not then sur- 
prised when Paul ascribes to him the attributes of God, as he 
does in his Epistle to the Colossians, (i. 16, 17,) where he says, 
" For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and 
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, 
or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all things were 
created by him, and for him ; and he is before all things, and 
by him all things consist." So in Heb. i. 3, " who upholds all 
things by the word of his power." Thus Paul ascribes to Jesus 
Christ the creation and sustentation of all things ; which are 
manifestly the attributes of God. Again, in his Epistle to the 
Hebrews he says, (xiii. 8,) u Jesus Christ the same yesterday, 
and to-day, and for ever." Here he ascribes to him unchange- 
ableness, which implies infinity and eternity ; and these are the 
well known attributes of God. Hence Paul swears by him, 



178 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

(Rom. xi. 1,) "I say the truth in Christ, I lie not." Now 
swearing is an act of worship ; a solemn appeal in important 
cases to the omniscient God as our witness that what we say 
is true. As then Paul solemnly appeals to Christ in this case, 
he shows that he considered him as God. 

That Paul supposed Jesus Christ to have something more 
than a mere superangelic origin, and regarded him as an 
emanation of the essential divinity, is plain from what he says 
of him in Hebrews, i. where he styles him the brightness of 
God's glory and the express image of his substance, and speaks 
of his being made "so much better than the angels," as to be 
the very son begotten of the father, whom the angels of God 
were to worship, (verses 4, 5, 6,) and whom (ii. 16) he ex- 
pressly speaks of as not " taking on him the nature of angels." 
In this and what follows Paul most evidently intimates that 
Jesus Christ had an existence anterior to his incarnation ; for 
he speaks of his " taking on the seed of Abraham ;" and how 
could that which did not exist take on any thing 1 To have 
taken on human nature in the seed of Abraham, it is plain that 
Jesus must have had prior being as an active agent. And that 
Paul regarded him as such an active agent above the plain of 
all angelic being, is quite manifest from his saying that he took 
not on him the nature or being of the angels. Consequently 
he must have regarded him as divine in his origin. Hence he 
speaks of him (Phil. ii. 6) as being so in the form of God as to 
be equal with God. 

A very striking confirmation of this view may be seen in the 
Epistle of this apostle to the Ephesians, iv. 9, 10, where he 
says, " Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also de- 
scended first into the lowest parts of the earth? He that 
descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens, 
that he might Jill all things" This passage most clearly 
shows that Paul regarded the origin of Jesus as divine ; for how 
else could Jesus in ascending up to where he was before have 
gone so high as to rise to omnipresence ? Water rises as high 
as its source; and therefore the height to which Jesus as- 
cended, shows that the source of his being was divinity itself. 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 179 

This declaration of Paul compared with the Lord's own de- 
claration that he is Alpha as well as Omega — the Beginning as 
well as the End — the First as well as the Last, must make it 
plain that the apostle regarded Jesus in his origin as no less 
than God, who, as he descended from the highest principles of 
the godhead, could descend to ihe " lowest parts of the earth ;" 
and in again ascending from the lowest parts of the earth, 
would rise again to the highest or first principles of Deity, so 
as to be in his exaltation God himself. 

If the above had not been Paul's view of Jesus Christ, how 
could he have said, as he did to Timothy, (1 Ep. iii. 16,) " God 
was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, 
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received 
up into glory ?" Mark, he says " God was manifest in the 
flesh, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world." 
And did not Paul preach Christ and him crucified 1 and was 
not Christ, when so preached, believed on in the world ? There- 
fore, when Paul says God was received up into glory, is it not 
clear that he means that Christ was so received up ? — thus that 
Jesus Christ in his descent, as well as in his ascent, was God ; 
and so was in his origin, as he is now in his final existence, 
divine ? 

See, in this connection, Paul's Epistle to Titus, i. 3, where 
he says, " But hath in due times manifested his Word through 
preaching, which is committed unto me, according to the com- 
mandment of God our Saviour." Now who was it gave com- 
mandment to Paul to preach ? Turn to the ninth chapter of 
the Acts, and you will see that it was Jesus Christ. It is plain, 
then, that he considered Jesus Christ as " God our Saviour." 
Indeed, in the next verse he expressly says, " Grace, mercy 
and peace from God the father, and the Lord Jesus Christ our 
Saviour." It is clear, then, that Paul considered Jesus Christ 
as God our Saviour. Hence there can be no doubt about the 
person to whom he alludes in the second chapter of this same 
Epistle to Titus, where he enjoins it on him to exhort servants 
to a faithful performance of their duties, " that they may adorn 
the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," (verse 10) : add- 



180 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

ing, " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath 
appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness 
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and 
godly in this present world : looking for that blessed hope, and 
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus 
Christ," (verses 11 — 13): thus clearly intimating that Jesus 
Christ our Saviour is the great God. 

It is not surprising, then, that Paul should say, (Rom. xiv. 
10 — 12,) " for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of 
Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee 
shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So 
then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." It 
would indeed have been surprising and unaccountable if he had 
said this and not considered Christ as God. For he says we 
shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ — of course, to 
give account to Christ. But he says " every one of us shall 
give account of himself to God." Clearly, then, he must 
have considered Christ as God. For he asserts that Christ will 
be our judge, and to prove it quotes our text, in which Jehovah 
says " every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall con- 
fess to God :" thus leaving us to make the plain inference that 
Christ, who is to be our judge, is the same with Jehovah, and 
is God. 

Since, then, it is clear that Paul considered Jesus Christ as 
God our Saviour, we need not be at a loss to understand these 
words of his in the third chapter of his Epistle to Titus, verses 
4 — 6, " But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour 
towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which 
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the 
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the holy ghost; 
which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our 
Saviour." This apostle here seems, indeed, to make a distinc- 
tion between "God our Saviour" and "Jesus Christ our 
Saviour." But is it not manifest that by " God our Saviour" 
he means the divine essence which dwells in Jesus Christ as a 
soul in a body? If he does not, and makes a personal distinc- 
tion between them, then we have two saviours. But this is 



THE GOD OF THE ArOSTLES. 181 

evidently not the case. For it is said in Hosea, (xiii. 4,) " I 
am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt 
know no God but me : for there is no saviour besides me." 
Manifestly, then, " God our Saviour" and " Jesus Christ our 
Saviour" are one and the same. And hence Jesus Christ is 
God our Saviour. 

Thus, by these passages of Paul's writings, we may see that 
he ascribes to Jesus Christ the attributes of God. For he as- 
cribes to him the divine attribute of the creation and sustenta- 
tion of all things ; speaks of him as " the same yesterday, and 
to-day, and for ever ;" asserts that every knee should bow to 
him, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
the earth, thus that he should be the object of universal wor- 
ship ; and expressly calls him God our Saviour, and God over 
all blessed for ever. 

Now it is perfectly evident that Paul could not have used 
this language in reference to the Lord Jesus unless he had con- 
sidered him as God. And if there is but one God, as he ex- 
pressly says there is, (Ephesians, iv. 6,) then Jesus Christ was 
in his estimation that one God. It is true that Paul makes a 
distinction between Jesus and the father, and seems to speak of 
them as if they were separate : but we shall presently point out 
the grounds and nature of that distinction, and show, we trust 
.clearly, that it does not militate against the idea that Jesus and 
the father are one person. 

In order to confirm this position, let us now advert to one or 
two passages in the Epistles of the other apostles. We shall 
find that they too use language in reference to Jesus which is 
only applicable to the one supreme God. Thus James, in his 
Gen. Epist. ii. 1, says, " My brethren, have not the faith of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of per- 
sons." Now how could he call Jesus Christ the Lord of glory 
if he did not regard him as a divine being ? For who is the 
Lord of glory ? Is he not the King of glory? And who is the 
King of glory? We are informed in the twenty-fourth Psalm, 
tenth verse, " The Lord of hosts, he is King of glory." Ac- 
cording to James, then, Jesus Christ is the Lord of hosts, who 

17 



182 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

is the supreme and only God. Compare this with Rev. xviL 
14, and xix. 16, where Jesus Christ, — who is the Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sins of the world, (John, i. 29,) and the 
Word, which was God made flesh, (verse 14,) — is expressly 
called " King of kings and Lord of lords." 

Again, Peter, in his First Epistle, i. 10, 11, says, "of which 
salvation the prophets have inquired, and searched diligently, 
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you ; 
searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ 
which was in them did testify, when it testified beforehand 
the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." 
Here Peter speaks of the spirit of Christ being in the prophets : 
while in his Second Epistle, i. 21, he says, " prophecy came 
not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake 
as they were moved by the holy ghost." Hence, according to 
him, the holy ghost and the spirit of Christ are the same. Now 
how could he have spoken of Christ in this way, if he had re- 
garded him as a mere man, or if he had not regarded him as 
God? For compare this with Luke, i. 68 — 76, where Zacharias, 
filled with the holy ghost, prophesies, saying, " Blessed be the 
Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his peo- 
pie, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house 
of his servant David ; as he spake by the mouth of his holy 
prophets, which have been since the world began." Here it is 
said the Lord God of Israel spake by the mouth of his holy pro- 
phets. Hence the spirit of Christ must have made one with the 
Lord God of Israel. And Christ and his own spirit are evi- 
dently one. According to Peter, then, Jesus Christ made one 
with the Lord God of Israel. 

See, also, the conclusion of the Epistle of Jude, in which he 
ascribes glory and majesty, dominion and power, " to the only 
wise God our Saviour." Here he evidently alludes to the Lord 
Jesus, and hereby shows as clearly that he regarded him as 
God. So John (1 Epis. v. 20) speaks expressly of Jesus Christ 
as the " true God and eternal life." Wherefore, we may conclude 
that Jesus Christ was considered as God by all the apostles. 
It is true, as we have already admitted, that both in the Acts 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 183 

and in the Epistles of the Apostles, there is a very manifest 
distinction made between the father and the Lord Jesus. The 
most remarkable instance in the Acts is recorded in the fourth 
chapter, verses 24 — 30. Here there is a prayer addressed to 
the Lord God as a being distinct from his " holy child Jesus," 
This, it is believed, is the only instance recorded in the Bible 
of a direct address, made by the apostles or their disciples, to 
the Lord God, without going to him through the person Jesus 
Christ. In the case of Stephen, as remarked in our last dis- 
course, the prayer was addressed directly to Jesus and not to 
God as the glory. But here the prayer is addressed to the Lord 
God, as the father of the child Jesus whom he had anointed. 
It may be that the apostles, like other men, were liable to fluctua- 
tions of state. They could not, any more than we can now, be 
made spiritual at once. They must, therefore, have frequently 
relapsed into the states peculiar to them as natural men. (See 
Rom. vii. 8 — 25.) Hence, as the ark rose and fell before it rested 
on Ararat, so they were, probably, at first, in alternate states of 
light and obscurity respecting the Lord's true character. When 
they were opposed, persecuted and afflicted, and hence were 
brought into a desponding state, they would see less clearly the 
identity of Jesus and the father, and rest more in the apparent 
distinction between them : for they would be now in a more 
sensual and corporeal state of thought and affection ; and there- 
fore in a greater state of obscurity as to spiritual and divine 
things : because the opposition, persecution and affliction which 
the Lord permitted them to suffer, were doubtless consequences 
of some low state, and designed in the divine mercy as means 
of elevating them out of it. Thus, after Peter and John had 
healed the cripple at the beautiful gate of the temple, and, 
having taught the people to ascribe the power and glory of 
their act to Jesus, because " his name, through faith in his 
name, had made the man strong," had consequently drawn 
upon themselves and their brethren the severe rebuke of the 
high priest and his council, the apostles must necessarily have 
been affected by the state of their accusers. Therefore they 
must have spoken in accommodation to their state, when speak* 



184 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

ing of Jesus. Hence they must have spoken both to and from 
a more or less sensual and corporeal state. And hence their 
view of Jesus, at the time, must as necessarily have been an 
obscure one. Therefore, in praying from this state, they would 
of course pray obscurely to him as one with the father. But 
when, like Stephen, they became wrapped in beatific vision, or 
were strongly under the influence of potent heavenly associa- 
tions, their views of the Lord's true character would be clearer ; 
and then they would, as Stephen did, regard Jesus as one with 
the father, and pray to the father only in and through him. 

Such may be one way of explaining this discrepancy in the 
apostolic mode of addressing the Divine Being in prayer. But 
I rather think it is a strong case of discrimination between the 
Lord's divine and human natures, in which the thought reverts 
to the human nature, before its glorification and full unition 
with the Divinity. The expression " holy child" indicates 
this — especially when compared with the thirty-sixth verse of 
the preceding chapter, where the apostle had said, " Therefore 
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made 
that same Jesus, ivhom ye have crucified, both Lord and 
Christ." Here Jesus is distinctly presented to the mind in a 
two-fold character, as one who could be crucified by the Jews, 
and therefore not the Divine Being ; and as one who was made 
to become Lord as well as Christ, and therefore God himself. 
Why, then, is it not presumable that when Peter in the next chap- 
ter prays to the Lord God, — as, doubtless, he and John both 
did, with the rest of " their own company," — he in reality 
prays to him who was made " Lord and Christ" ; thus to Jesus 
Christ himself in his divinity; and only alludes to " the holy 
child Jesus ;" as the humanity, contradistinguished from that 
divinity, as its bodily form in a yet subordinating state 1 The 
whole connection shows to my mind that the thought of the 
prayer, in respect to Jesus as the humanity or form of the 
divine essence, is retrospective. 

But, be this as it may, it is certain that there is every where 
manifest a clear distinction between Jesus and the father in the 
minds of the apostles. Thus James styles himself "a servant 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 185 

of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." Peter speaks of " the 
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Jude, too, ad- 
dresses his Epistle "to them that are sanctified by God the 
father, and preserved in Jesus Christ." So Paul speaks of God 
our Saviour as saving us through Jesus Christ our Saviour — 
as if God our Saviour and Jesus Christ our Saviour were two 
persons. Hence it may be asked, how can we suppose the 
apostles considered Jesus Christ as God, when they thus speak 
of him as separate from God ? How, it may be asked, can it 
be said that God our Saviour saves us through Jesus Christ our 
Saviour, if Jesus Christ is himself God our Saviour? Is not 
this as much as to say Jesus Christ saves us through himself I 
In order to answer these questions we must here again anticU 
pate the subject of a future discourse, and lay open the grounds 
of the apparent distinction which the apostles make between 
Jesus and the father. 

There is in the one person of Jesus Christ, a two-fold nature 
— a divine and a human nature. But these natures are not 
separate in Jesus Christ : for his human can no more exist 
separately from his divine nature, than an effect can exist 
separately from its cause, or a form from its essence, or a body 
from its soul. But the human and divine are distinct in him, 
just as an effect is distinct from its cause, or a form from its es- 
sence, or a body from its soul. And, for the sake of distinction, 
they are sometimes spoken of as separate, and in the spiritual 
world are sometimes represented as separate. Thus the divine 
and human natures of Jesus Christ were represented to John bv 
" One sitting on the throne of God, and by a Lamb in the midst 
of the throne :" and the same was represented to Stephen bv 
the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. And it is 
in reference to this distinction that the apostles speak of Jesus 
in connection with the father. For the speaking of Jesus in 
connection with the father, is the same, in an intellectual point 
of view, as the representing him standing on the right hand of 
the glory of God, is in a sensual point of view. Thus grace, 
mercy and peace are no less than twenty times implored of 
Christ together with the father. For example, Paul, in his 

17* 



186 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

Epistle to Titus, says, "To Titus mine own son after the com- 
mon faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the father, and 
the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour." Now here it would seem 
that God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour are 
two separate beings. But this cannot be. For grace, mercy 
and peace are the gifts of God only. And hence, if they are 
derived from two separate beings, there must be two Gods — 
which is impossible. But there is certainly a distinction made 
between them by the apostle. And it becomes a question what 
that distinction is. This can be determined only by a reference 
to other passages of his writings. 

In Colossians, i. 15, this apostle says, Jesus Christ " is the 
image of the invisible God ;" and, in another place, that he is 
" the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his sub- 
stance." (Heb. i. 3.) The relation of Jesus to the father, then, 
is that of brightness to glory, or of image to substance, which 
is the same as form to essence. When, then, Paul speaks of 
God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, he alludes to the di- 
vine essence and the divine form, which together make one 
God. Thus he does not allude to Jesus Christ as a being 
separate from God, but to a principle in the one God, in con- 
tradistinction to another principle in the one God — -to the 
external man of Deity as distinguished from his internal man — 
to the visible form as distinguished from the invisible essence. 
So in the terms " God our Saviour" and " Jesus Christ our 
Saviour," he alludes to the hidden essence and the manifested 
form of God. And as the form has nothing but what it derives 
from the essence — as the effect has nothing but what it derives 
from the cause — hence the form is one with the essence. Con- 
sequently, as the essence is divine, so also is the form. Thus, 
as the father is God, so also is Jesus Christ God. And thus, 
as the father is Saviour, so also is Jesus Christ Saviour. When, 
then, it is said that God our Saviour saves us through Jesus 
Christ our Saviour, it is meant that the Essential Divinity saves 
us through the medium of his manifested form ; and not that 
God in one person saves us by the mediation of God in another 
person. 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 187 

Thus, then, when the apostles speak of Jesus Christ in con- 
nection with the father, they merely allude to what is external 
and internal in the one God. And hence, whether they say 
" God the father," or " Jesus Christ the Saviour," they equally 
mean the one, only, living and true God. 

Therefore, when Paul says God our Saviour, according to 
his mercy, saved us by the washing of regeneration, and 
renewing of the holy ghost, which he shed on us abundantly 
through Jesus Christ our Saviour, he means, that God the 
father saves us by that regenerative process which he himself 
works in us through the medium of the human form and cha- 
racter by which he manifested himself upon earth. Thus he 
saves us by the mediation of Jesus Christ, who is " the image 
of the invisible God," and who has dwelling in him "all the 
fulness of the godhead bodily." In other words, God the 
father, as the soul and mind of Jesus Christ, saves us by the 
doctrines, precepts and divine spiritual influences of Jesus 
Christ — who is thus a mediator between God and man, just as 
my body is a mediator between my soul and you. And in this 
light it is, that Paul says, (1 Tim. ii. 5,) " There is one God, 
and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus :" 
— not that the man Christ Jesus is a separate person, or an in- 
dividuality distinct from the one God, but is that human prin- 
ciple, nature and form which the one God has taken to himself, 
or by which he has brought himself down to the sense, thought 
and affection of man — through which he thus communicates 
with man, and which, in a sense, he has in common with man. 
The man Christ Jesus is the external man of Jehovah himself 
— is the manifestation of his glory — is the express image of his 
substance ; and hence he is not a person distinct from Jehovah. 
Jehovah is the invisible divinity which resides within him as a 
soul in its body, or as fire in its flame, or as an essence in its 
form. And as the invisible Jehovah God can be approached 
only through the form by which he manifests himself, hence 
that form is a mediator between him and man : and thus it is 
that the man Christ Jesus, who is the form of Jehovah, is the 
mediator between God and man. Hence, when Paul says 



188 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

" there is one God, and one mediator between God and man, 
the man Christ Jesus," it is as if he had said illustratively, 
there is one sun, and one mediator between the sun and the 
earth, the light which proceeds from the sun. And the man 
Christ Jesus is no more separate from the one God, than the 
light which proceeds from the sun is separate from the sun. 

Jesus Christ is actually, too, the " true light which enlight- 
eneth every man that cometh into the world." (John, i. 9.) And 
comparatively in the same way that light proceeds from flame, 
does Jesus, who is the light of truth, proceed from God the 
father, who is the flame of love. For " in the beginning was 
the word, and the word was with God, and God was the word 
— and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The 
word was the divine wisdom or truth, which was with God, 
because it was the form of divine love or goodness. And the 
divine wisdom or truth, descending from the divine love or 
goodness, manifested itself upon earth through a material body, 
with which it clothed itself and was thus made flesh, as light 
proceeds from the sun's flame, and, descending into the atmo- 
spheres of this earth, manifests itself in the various material 
existences of nature. This body, through which the divine 
truth manifested itself, was called Jesus Christ. And thus 
Jesus Christ was the true light, because divine truth from divine 
goodness was in him as an animating soul, and beamed from 
his life and conversation, as a wise and virtuous soul shines in 
a good man's speech and actions. 

Now, from what has been said, it results that there is the 
same relation between Jesus and the Essential Divinity that 
there is between the light of the sun and the flame or essential 
fire which constitutes the sun. And, if we keep this idea in our 
minds, it w^ili enable us to apprehend rightly the distinction 
which the apostles make between Jesus and the father, when 
they mention them together. For the word was with God, 
that is, with the essential divine principle, or divine goodness, 
as light is with the sun's flame : and the word was God, that is 
divine truth made one with the divine good, or the divine under- 
derstanding made one with the divine will, as the sun's light 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 189 

makes one with the sun's flame. Hence, when it is said, " In 
the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and 
God was the word — and the word was made flesh," we may 
imagine it is something similar to its being said, in the begin- 
ning there was light, and the light was with the sun, and the 
sun was the light, and the light was made matter. 

Thus, then, there is no other distinction between Jesus Christ 
and God than there is between light and flame, brightness and 
glory, form and essence, or the visible image and the invisible 
substance. And Jesus Christ is no otherwise separate from the 
father than the light which proceeds from and manifests the 
sun is separate from the sun. He is " the glory as of the only 
begotten of the father" — " He is in the bosom of the father, 
and hath brought him forth to view" — " He came forth from 
the father," and hath shown him unto us. And thus those that 
see him see the father. For " all things that the father hath 
are his;" and "he is in the father, and the father in him." 
Hence " he and the father are one." Consequently, we may 
conclude, that the apostles, as they were filled by his spirit, — 
though they speak of him as if separate from the father, — 
must, nevertheless, have regarded him and the father as one. 
And this accounts for the fact that they ascribe to him the attri- 
butes, the perfections, and the acts of the father ; implore from 
him together with the father, grace, mercy and peace ; perform 
miracles, and pronounce benedictions in his name ; expressly 
call him the Lord God of the holy prophets, (Rev. xxii. 6, 16,) 
and in all respects regard and worship him as God. 

This enables us to understand, too, why Paul, though he 
often names Jesus in connexion with the father, seemingly as 
if they were separate, nevertheless expressly calls him God 
our Saviour, and God over all, blessed for ever. It is evident 
that he makes no other distinction between him and the father, 
than between what is visible and what is invisible, or the divine 
essence and its manifested form. Hence in Philippians, ii. 5, 6, 
he says, " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ 
Jesus : who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery 
to be equal with God." Mark, he here expressly says Christ 



190 THE LCRD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

Jesus is in the form of God, and implies that he is equal with 
God. Now in what sense can he be the form of God, unless 
as divine truth is the form of divine goodness ? Supposing this 
to be Paul's meaning, then this passage runs parallel with the 
passages from John above quoted and illustrated. Thus he is 
the form of God, and is equal with God, because he is the word 
which was in the beginning with God, and was God. 

But Paul proceeds to say, (verses 7, 8,) that, notwithstand- 
ing this his high estate, he "made himself of no reputation, and 
took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the 
likeness of men ; and, being found in fashion as a man, he 
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the 
death of the cross." Now it is utterly inconceivable to me 
how any one, on reading this passage of Paul's writings, could 
doubt that he regarded Jesus Christ as God. Most certainly it 
is evident, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Paul did not, 
like the Socinian, regard Jesus as a mere man. For he speaks 
of his taking upon him the form of a servant, which shows that 
he had another form before he took upon him that of a servant. 
And as Paul says he was in the form of God, it follows that he 
was God before he appeared on earth as man. Thus it is 
manifest that Paul did not regard him as a mere man, but as 
God. And the Socinian, who, judging from mere appearances, 
mistakes Jesus Christ for a mere man because he, to effect the 
purposes of his mercy, took upon himself the form of a ser- 
vant, is like a clown who should mistake a king for a peasant 
because he had assumed that disguise in order to become ac- 
quainted with, and to relieve, the actual condition of his sub- 
jects. But Paul was no Socinian. His spiritual discernment 
was too acute to be deceived by mere appearances. Beneath 
the habiliments of the despised Nazarene, he could see the royal 
robes of the King of kings. And though he calls him the man 
Christ Jesus, he was not therefore ignorant that he is also the 
Lord of lords. Hence he speaks of him as being found in 
fashion as a man, as humbling himself, and as becoming obe- 
dient unto death, even the death of the cross. Which is equi- 
valent to the word's being made flesh and dwelling among us : 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 191 

and implies that the divine truth assumed our nature with all 
its corruptions — that is, assumed a human free agency disposed 
to all evil, without destroying its appropriate life by a too 
powerful influx of the divine life, and experienced in it all the 
consciousness of human nature as it was then defiled ; and by 
acting in this nature as another man, except that he acted from 
a divine impulse, dictate, or influx, he submitted to those trials 
and conflicts — even to death on the cross — which were neces- 
sary to purify and glorify this nature until it became divine. 
And when the divine nature of Jesus Christ had entirely broke 
the bonds of evil hereditarily accumulated in the human nature 
which he assumed upon earth, had entirely conformed himself 
to the laws of divine order, and had thus " by himself purged 
our sins," " he then ascended up on high leading captivity cap- 
tive and receiving gifts for men." " He sat down on the right 
hand of the Majesty on High ; being made so much better than 
the angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent 
name than they." For Jesus came forth from the father, and 
came into the world, and again he left the world, and went to 
the father. And the father glorified him with the glory which 
he had with him before the world was. " Wherefore God also 
hath highly exalted him, and hath given him a name which is 
above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things 
under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that 
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father." All 
which implies that Jesus Christ was the manifested form of 
Jehovah upon earth — that the divine essence which was in him 
as a soul enabled him to purify himself until he became one with 
that divine essence, and thus became himself God — and that 
now he is to be worshiped directly as God, to the glory of the 
divine essence of which he is the manifested form. So " that 
all men should honour the son even as they honour the father." 
And " he that honoureth not the son, honoureth not the father 
which hath sent him." 

Now was it possible for Paul thus to hold up Jesus Christ as 
the being before whom all created intelligences should prostrate 



192 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

themselves in adoration, and yet not regard him as God ? For 
our part, we think this last passage alone conclusive ; but when 
it is added to the other passages which we have brought for- 
ward from his epistles as well as those of the other apostles, 
there is an accumulated weight of evidence that they considered 
Jesus Christ as God which cannot be withstood. And therefore 
we conclude, that, though they speak of Jesus as if he were 
separate from the father, yet they saw clearly that he and the 
father are one person, and consequently must have considered 
him as God. 

Indeed all difficulty on this subject would vanish if we were 
to apply the principles of our preceding discourses, and suppose 
that the apostles, by the terms father, son and holy ghost, un- 
derstood a distinction of principles in the godhead. 

Peter, when he addresses his First Epistle to the " elect ac- 
cording to the foreknowledge of God the father, through sanc- 
tification of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the 
blood of Jesus Christ," does indeed seem to imply that the 
father, the spirit, and Jesus Christ are three separate beings. 
But may not this be a mere appearance ? May we not suppose 
that he considered these three as the distinct constituents of the 
one God ? In short, may we not suppose that all the apostles 
considered God the father as the essential divine principle, 
which in itself is incomprehensible and unapproachable by man? 
— Jesus Christ as this essential divine principle in a manifested 
form ? — and the holy ghost as the spirit and influence of Jesus 
Christ ? The more we consider this matter, the more are we 
convinced that the above suggestion is probable. The essential 
divine principle is love ; the manifested form of this is light, or 
wisdom, or the word, or the truth ; and the spirit of truth is 
truth operating in and sanctifying the hearts of men. May it 
not have been, then, in reference to these principles that the 
apostles spoke, and not to any separate individualities in the 
godhead ? At least, will not their language bear this construc- 
tion ? And will not their language thus construed be less 
exceptionable, more consistent with reason as well as the 
Sacred Scriptures, and less liable to the charge of tritheism in 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 193 

ascribing to the father, the son and the holy ghost, each as a 
separate person, the incommunicable attributes of God? We 
have seen that, in speaking of Jesus, they use language which 
is only applicable to the supreme and only God ; and it is 
utterly inconceivable how he can possess divine properties, and 
yet be an individuality separate from God the father, without 
supposing there are two beings possessing divine properties, 
which is to suppose there are two gods. But supposing that he 
is only the manifested form of God the father, and that there is 
no more distinction between him and the father than there is 
between a form and its essence, or a body and its soul, then all 
becomes plain and rational. For, in this case, it is no more 
absurd and improper to ascribe divine attributes to Jesus Christ 
than it is to ascribe the energies of a man's soul to his body. 
The essence and the form make one : for the essence cannot 
exist without its form, and the form cannot subsist without its 
essence. Hence what belongs to the essence belongs to the 
form, and what is ascribed to the essence may be ascribed to 
the form. Supposing, then, that Jesus is the form of God as a 
hidden divine essence within him, all that belongs to the divine 
essence may be ascribed to him; because all that belongs to 
the divine essence belongs also to him. And that this really is 
so, may be gathered from the Lord's own words in John, xvi. 
15, " All things that the father hath are mine." And again, 
ch. xvii. 10, " all mine are thine, and thine are mine." And, 
therefore, supposing the apostles to regard him as holding this 
relation to the essential divine principle, or God the father, 
there would be no impropriety in their ascribing to him the 
attributes of God the father. Since, then, this view so satisfac- 
torily explains their language, why may we not suppose they 
entertained it ? And hence, when they speak of God the father, 
why may we not suppose that they allude to the principle of 
divine love, and not to an individual being or person called the 
father ? — and when they speak of Christ, why may we not sup- 
pose that they allude to the principle of divine wisdom, or truth, 
in a human form, and not to another individual being, or person, 
called the son ? — and when they speak of the holy ghost, why 

18 



194 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

may we not, in like manner, suppose that they allude to the 
proceeding influence or spirit of Christ, instead of a third 
separate or distinct personality ? The view of three separate 
or distinct personalities is clogged with insuperable difficulties, 
but that of three essential principles in one divine person is 
highly rational ; and while it enables us to account for the 
threefold distinction which the apostles every where in their 
writings make, it also enables us to account for their ascription 
of the incommunicable properties of God to the man Christ Je- 
sus. For, according to this view, they regarded the man 
Christ Jesus as nothing more than the outward form of the 
essential divinity dwelling within him. 

And we are not left to conjecture on this point : for Paul ex- 
pressly says that Jesus Christ was in the form of God — that 
he is the express image of God's substance, and the brightness 
of his glory : and thus the Lord Jesus can no more be a person 
separate or distinct from the father, than brightness is a person 
separate or distinct from glory, or the form of God a person 
distinct from the essence of God. 

John also, as we have shown before, and as we shall show 
more fully in our next discourse, speaks of God as love, and 
God as light. And it is very manifest to those who study his 
Epistles in connection with the Gospel written by him, that he 
identifies Jesus Christ with God as light. Supposing, then, that 
he alluded to the father, or essential principle of Deity, when he 
speaks of God as love, we have it clearly indicated that he dis- 
tinguished between Jesus Christ and the father, as between the 
two principles light and love. 

Jesus Christ is, moreover, clearly identified with the second 
or formative principle in the godhead mentioned above, viz. 
the light, the divine wisdom, the word, or the truth. For Paul 
expressly calls him " the wisdom of God-" (1 Cor. i. 24.) John 
shows that he was " the word made flesh, and the true light 
which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world." 
(John, i. 1, 14.) And Jesus himself asserted that he is " the 
truth" (John, xiv. 6.) 

We conclude, then, that the apostles, when they speak of 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 195 

Jesus as distinct from the father, regard him as no otherwise 
so than a form is distinct from its essence. And as the form 
of a divine essence must be divine as well as the essence, 
hence, that they ascribed to him divine attributes and considered 
him as their God. 

We have now seen, by quotations from the Epistles of all the 
apostles except John, that there is language used in reference 
to Jesus Christ which can only be applied to God. We have 
reserved our quotations from the Epistles of John to the last, 
because they contain a passage which we wish to consider 
somewhat minutely. 

And now, in conclusion, we are to answer the question, why 
the apostles, when they saw clearly that the Lord Jesus and 
the father are one person, did not utter this truth plainly. The 
reason we have to give why the apostles did not state in express 
language that Jesus Christ and the father are one person, is 
because this was too spiritual a truth for the incipient state of 
the church. It was in express reference to this point that we 
introduced the second sermon of this series, the main object of 
which was to show the great spirituality of the truth that Jesus 
Christ is God alone, and the consequent difficulty of its recep- 
tion by natural men. Hence the low natural views of the first 
Christians did not allow them to comprehend this truth. It is 
a truth which the spiritual mind alone can in any degree com- 
prehend. The merely natural mind cannot conceive how God 
can be man. It cannot conceive how the infinite, the eternal, 
the omniscient, and the omnipresent God can be at the same 
time in heaven, and in a circumscribed bodily form upon earth. 
All the ideas of the natural mind are derived from time and 
space ; and therefore time and space must enter into the idea 
which this mind forms of the Divine Being. Thus its idea of 
the Divine Being is as duration without beginning or end and 
space without limit. For these are the eternal and infinite of 
time and space. And as it is impossible for the mind to form 
any conception of time without beginning and end, or of space 
without limit, hence it is impossible for the natural mind to 
Conceive of the Deity as existing in form. For in ths idea of 



196 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

the natural mind, form is limited in space. Consequently, it 
would be impossible for the natural mind to conceive of the 
Divine Being as existing in a human form, thus as existing in 
Jesus Christ. This is one of those deep arcana of heaven, one 
of those things of God, which Paul says are foolishness to the 
natural man, and which must be spiritually discerned. i( Great" 
says he, " is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in 
the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto 
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." 
(1 Tim. iii. 16.) These words have reference to the assumption 
and glorification of human nature by the Divine Being : and this is 
called a great mystery. Is it, then, to be supposed that the natural 
mind can comprehend it. Surely not. And hence we may see 
why Paul says, in another place, " no man can say that Jesus is 
the Lord, but by the holy ghost." (1 Cor. xii. 3.) Hence, that 
Jesus Christ is God and God alone, is a truth which the mere 
natural mind cannot conceive and admit. And hence Paul, 
though he might have had a very clear idea of this truth him- 
self, — as he had been caught up into the third heaven and had 
seen unutterable things, — was under the necessity of being cau- 
tious how he uttered this truth plainly when he was addressing 
natural men. 

But it may be asked what evidence have you that this was 
the character of the first Christians ? We reply, does it not 
stand to reason, that, in that period of the world in which it 
was necessary for the Divine Being to descend to earth to re- 
deem men from perdition, all men must have been in the most 
gross and grovelling condition ; and was it possible to raise 
them instantly from this to a state of spiritual perception 1 It is 
said that the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard 
seed — small in its beginning and gradual in its growth. Must 
not, then, the church, which is the kingdom of heaven upon 
earth, be of a similar nature ; and thus must not those who first 
constitute the church be in a lower state than those by whom 
it is subsequently and finally constituted? That the character 
of the Lord's disciples, and of course of the first Christians, 
was merely natural, is evident from the fact that they so often 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 197 

Understood him in a natural sense when his words had a spiritual 
import ; and from the fact that he so frequently had occasion 
to explain to them the meaning of what he had uttered. That 
this was their character is plain, too, from his expressly say- 
ing, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now." (John, xvi. 12.) And again, " These things 
have I spoken unto you in proverbs ; but the time cometh, 
when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall 
show you plainly of the father." (verse 35.) These words of 
the Lord show clearly that the state of the first Christians was 
more obscure than that of the church at some future day would 
be. And we may gather that it was an obscurity as to percep- 
tion of the truth that he was the very father. 

That Paul, too, considered the first Christians in a low na- 
tural state, and on this account did not speak more plainly of 
Jesus as identical with the father, must be manifest to any 
one who attentively reads his Epistles. See, for instance, 
what he says to the Corinthians, in his First Epistle, iii. 1 — 3, 
" And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, 
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed 
you with milk, and not with meat : for hitherto ye were not 
able to bear it : neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet 
carnal." This language is express with regard to the Corin- 
thians, showing them to be in the lowest natural state as Chris- 
tians, or only on the verge of spirituality. How then could 
he speak to them plainly of a truth which is so highly 
spiritual and mystical in its character that even the angels 
desire to look into it ? (1 Pet. i. 12.) And we may con- 
clude, from the tenor of his Epistles to the Christians of other 
churches, that they were in a state little if any superior to that 
of the Corinthians. See his Epistle to the Gallatians, i. 6, and 
iii. 3. Also, Ephesians, iv. 14; and his Epistles throughout. 

Turn especially to the fifth chapter of his Epistle to the He- 
brews, which is directly in point. For in that chapter he is 
speaking of Christ. And "of whom" he expressly says, 
(verse 11,) " we have many things to say, and hard to be ut- 
tered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when, for the time* 
18* 



198 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again 
which be the first principles of the oracles of God ; and are 
become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat." 
Here all we are contending for is uttered in so many words. 
For Paul says explicitly, that he had many things to say of 
Christ, which he could not say on account of the low state of 
those to whom he addressed himself. They were only in 
the first principles of Christianity, and therefore could not bear 
the plain enunciation of its sublimest truth, that Jesus Christ 
and the father are one and the same person. In their mere 
natural views of things they were prone to regard Jesus as a 
mere man like themselves ; and to have told them in direct 
terms that he and the father are absolutely identical, would 
have been uttering to them a hard saying, which they could 
not have borne. He was obliged, therefore, to accommodate 
himself to their state, and to speak as unto babes. He, there- 
fore, spake according to the appearances of things, and seemed 
to speak of Jesus as if he were separate from the father : just 
as an earthly parent must speak, according to appearances, to 
his infant children in relation to the things of this world. Be- 
cause, if a parent were to talk to his children in philosophical 
language, it would be perfectly impossible for them to under- 
stand him. Thus he must speak of the sun's rising and setting 
« — though it is philosophically true that the sun is stationary, 
and the appearance of its rising and setting is produced by the 
earth's rotary motion on its axis. For a child's mind being 
as yet formed by the appearances of truth only, he is not able 
to apprehend the philosophical truth. And if you talk to him 
about the fact as it really is, the appearance in his mind is so 
contrary to what you say, that he cannot believe you. So had 
Paul spoken to the early Christians in plain terms about the 
identity of the Lord Jesus and the father, his doctrine would 
have been so contrary to appearances in their natural mind, 
that they would have rejected it wholly. And thus, that they 
might receive this most important spiritual truth in any degree, 
he was obliged to clothe it in a natural form suited to their na- 
tural state. Hence he spoke of Jesus in connection with the 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. W9 

father, and ascribed to him divine attributes ; thus intimating 
that he was in some sense divine, and hereby leading them to 
regard him with religious veneration, without expressly assert- 
ing his identity with the father. This statement of the truth 
was explicit enough for that state of the church. It was as 
full a disclosure of the divine character of Jesus Christ as the 
minds of men at that time would bear. And it enabled the 
natural Christian to understand the truth in his degree, while 
the spiritual Christian could understand it in his : just as the 
usual custom of saying the sun rises and sets is accommodated 
to the apprehension of the illiterate man, while it does not pre- 
vent the philosopher from understanding the truth philosophi- 
cally. 

Thus we may discern why Paul, — though he himself saw 
clearly, as every Christian who arrives at his state of spiritual 
discernment, will, that Jesus and the father are one and the 
same person, — yet does not, in his Epistles to the first Chris- 
tians, state this truth plainly. 

But although Paul does not say in so many words that Jesus 
Christ and the father are one person, he speaks of him in such 
a way as clearly to intimate that this is the truth. He uses 
such language in relation to Jesus that it is impossible for the 
mind to conceive of the truth in any other way, without an 
idea of two divine beings or of two gods. 

Notwithstanding, then, the apparent distinction between 
Jesus and the father in the Epistles of Paul, it is evident that 
this apostle considered Jesus Christ as God. Hence we con- 
clude that Jesus Christ was the God of Paul ; and, of course, 
of all the apostles. 

To Jesus Christ, then, be glory and dominion, for ever! 
For " there is given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
that all people, nations and languages should serve him — his 
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass 
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." 
(Dan. vii. 13, 14.) 



SERMON XII 



ISAIAH, IX. 6. 

" For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and the government 
shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, 
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of 
Peace." 

In our last discourse we made quotations from all the Epistles 
except those of John. And we trust it was proved satisfactorily, 
that the authors of those Epistles, though they speak of Jesus 
Christ as if he were separate from the father, nevertheless 
really considered him as one with the father, and thus as God. 
We pointed out the grounds and nature of ,the distinction 
which the apostles make between Jesus and the father, sug- 
gested the probability of their understanding by the terms father, 
son and holy ghost three distinct principles in the godhead, 
and showed that the reason why they did not say plainly that 
Jesus and the father are one person, was, because the church 
in their day was not in a state to see and admit a truth so 
highly spiritual. We now bring forward the testimony of John 
also, that Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles. 

Glancing our eye over the Epistles of John, we every where 
discern that he speaks of Jesus Christ as the son of God ; and 
by this term, it is very evident that he understood, as we have 
heretofore explained it, an embodied presentation of the divine 
essence. 

A son of any thing, in the sense in which the Scriptures use 
this term, is that which proceeds from it and presents an image 
of it in another degree. Thus a plant is the son of the vege- 
table soul that flows into the elements of nature and clothes 



JESUS CHRIST WAS THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 201 

itself with a correspondent form. Certain mineral substances, 
if their minute parts are suspended in a suitable solvent and 
are left free to obey the laws of attraction flowing in from the 
spiritual world, invariably arrange themselves into certain crys- 
talline forms. Thus the carbonate of lime, or limestone, crys- 
tallizes in the form of a rhomboid ; common salt in the form of 
a cube ; and silex, or quartz, in the form of a six-sided prism. 
Now this prismatic form is the son of the spiritual principle which 
so flows into and clothes itself in the natural world. And by 
seeing the form of the crystal, we know the quality of the 
spiritual principle which produces that form. Just so Jesus 
Christ is the son of God. And hence Paul calls him the ex- 
press image of God's substance. So that when we see him, 
we see the image of the divine essence; and by seeing his 
form may know the quality of that essence. Wherefore, he 
himself says, " He that seeth me seeth the father." It is 
evidently in this sense of an embodied presentation of the di- 
vine essence, that John speaks of Jesus Christ as the son of 
God throughout his Epistles ; and therefore, by virtue of Jesus 
Christ's conjunction with the Eternal Divinity, regards him as 
a divine principle which existed antecedent to the incarnation. 

Thus he says, (1 Ep. v. 5,) " who is he that overcometh the 
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God ?" So 
throughout the chapter, in which he evidently ascribes to Jesus 
divine properties, and makes him one with God the father. 
For he says " there are three that bear record in heaven, the 
father, the word and the holy ghost : and these three are one." 
(verse 7.) It is clear that the word in this passage is iden- 
tical with Jesus, as will be seen by comparing it with the Gos- 
pel by John, i. 1, 14. "And," again, " this is the record that 
God hath given to us eternal life ; and this life is in his son." 
" He that hath the son hath life ; and he that hath not the son 
of God hath not life." (verses 11, 12.) Here eternal life is 
ascribed to Jesus Christ, and is said to be in him : and this is 
ascribing to him a divine property which is absolutely incom- 
municable from one person to another. 

So in chapter iv. 2, 3, he says, " Hereby know ye the spirit 



202 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

of God : every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come 
in the flesh, is of God ; and every spirit that confesseth not 
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God." Here 
he speaks of Jesus Christ coming in the flesh, as if he existed 
before he came in the flesh — thus intimating that Christ is a di- 
vine principle. 

Compare, too, the first and sixteenth verses of the third chap- 
ter : " Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed on 
us, that we should be called the sons of God" — " Hereby per- 
ceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us." 
Now it is manifest that Jesus laid down his life for us : how, 
then, could John say that God laid down his life for us, if he 
did not consider Jesus Christ as God ? See in connection with 
this, Acts, xx. 28, where Paul, speaking to the elders of the 
church at Ephesus, says, " Take heed, therefore, unto your- 
selves, and to all the flock over the which the holy ghost hath 
made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath 
purchased with his own blood." We presume there cannot be 
a doubt in any mind that Paul alludes here to Jesus Christ ; 
and therefore, he expressly calls him God. Thus we may con- 
clude from the express language of both Paul and John, that 
they considered Jesus Christ as God. 

But it is likewise true that John, with the other apostles, 
makes a distinction between Jesus and the father. Thus (1 Ep. 
i. 3) he says, " And truly our fellowship is with the father, 
and with his son Jesus Christ." But if any one has read atten- 
tively the sermons of this series, we think he will say it is per- 
fectly manifest that this distinction, as it existed in the mind of 
John, was nothing more than a distinction of divine principles. 
For, in chapter iv. 8, he says, " God is love :" this is the 
father. And, in chapter i. 5, he says, " God is light :" this is 
the son. For turn to his Gospel, i. 1, 9, and you will find him 
saying, of the word which was in the beginning with God and 
was God, that he " was the true light, which lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world:" and afterwards, (verses 14, 
34,) of this word made flesh, or Jesus, you will find him say- 
ing, " And I saw and bear record that this is the son of God." 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 203 

Thus the distinction between the father and the son is as 
of love and light : or as of love and wisdom ; because light is 
truth and truth is wisdom. And Jesus Christ is the son, be- 
cause he, as the light, is the embodied presentation of the flame 
of divine love ; or because he, as " the truth," is the embodied 
presentation of the divine goodness, and thus is, to use the 
words of Paul again, " the brightness of the father's glory." 
Therefore, the distinction between Jesus Christ and the father 
is the same as that between truth and goodness or wisdom and 
love : thus is a distinction of principles, and not of persons. 
When, then, John says, " our fellowship is with the father, and 
with his son Jesus Christ," he means that our fellowship is with 
the divine love or goodness, and with the divine wisdom or 
truth, which is the manifested form of the divine love or good- 
ness, and is thus the only begotten son of the divine love or 
goodness. 

And this distinction does not so destroy the unity of the father 
and the son as that he might not say, as he does in chapter v. 
7, they are one. For the father and the son, though they are 
distinct, make one as love and wisdom make one ; or as will 
and understanding, or thought and speech, make one. That 
this is the distinction, and this the unity, between the father 
and the son, which were conceived in the mind of John, is very 
manifest from what he says in chapter ii. 20, " But ye have an 
unction from the Holy One" — and in verses 22, 23, " who is a 
liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? he is anti-christ 
that denieth the father and the son. Whosoever denieth the 
son, the same hath not the father." Here he calls Jesus the 
Holy One, and implies that he who denies Jesus denies the 
father also : for he says he is anti-christ who denieth the father 
and the son : which is the same as saying he that is against 
Christ is against both the father and the son ; inasmuch as to 
deny one is to deny the other. Thus it is plain that he con- 
sidered the son and the father one, and only distinct as truth 
and goodness are distinct. For whosoever denieth the truth 
denieth the good of which it is the manifested form. And as 
there can be no distinction between Jesus Christ and the truth 



204 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

which he utters, hence he that denies the truth denies Jesus 
Christ. And as Jesus Christ is " the truth ;" and as the truth 
comes forth from, thus is the manifested form, or the son, of 
the divine goodness or father ; and he that denieth the truth 
denieth the good which sent it ; hence he that denieth Jesus 
Christ denieth the father that sent him. 

By denying Jesus a man renounces the doctrines and the 
precepts which Jesus when on earth uttered, and which his 
Gospel now contains ; and by renouncing these doctrines and 
precepts, or by not living according to these doctrines and pre- 
cepts, he is without the good from which they came forth in the 
divine mind of Jesus, and to which they lead in the human 
mind of every one who faithfully and perseveringly reduces 
them to practice. And thus " whosoever denieth the son, the 
same hath not the father." Hence John says, in the next verse, 
the twenty-fourth, " Let that therefore abide in you which ye 
have heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from 
the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the 
son, and in the father." Now what did they hear from the 
beginning but the truth? and how could this remain in them 
but by their practising it? In the degree that they practised the 
truth, they continued in the truth ; and in the degree that they 
continued in the truth, they continued in the son, that is Jesus 
Christ, for he is " the truth" (John, xiv. 6 ;) and in the degree 
that they continued in the son, they continued in the good to 
which the truth he utters leads — that is, they continued in the 
father. Hence it is that John said to them to whom he wrote, 
that if what they had heard from the beginning remained in 
them, they should continue in the son and in the father. And 
hence the Lord himself said to his disciples, (John, xiv. 23,) 
" if a man love me, he will keep my words : and my father will 
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode 
with him." For, in the degree that a man loves the truth, he 
does it ; and in the degree that he does the truth, his mind is 
opened to the influences of divine love — thus the father loves 
him; and in the degree that the divine love is shed abroad in 
a man's heart, with all its sanctifying and perfecting influences, 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 205 

he has a clearer and fuller internal perception of goodness and 
truth, even the same truth which he before had seen only intel- 
lectually : thus both the father and the son " come unto him ;" 
and in the degree that he, from the delight of this perception, 
more thoroughly and effectively reduces these principles to 
practice, so that they become a matter of habit with him, they 
acquire within him a fixed habitation, and thus both the father 
and the son " make their abode with him." 

To the same purport, the Lord says, (John, xv. 7 — 10,) " If 
ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what 
ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my father 
glorified, that ye bear much fruit. — If ye keep my command- 
ments ye shall abide in my love." " He that hateth me, hateth 
my father also. If I had not done among them the works 
which none other man did, they had not had sin : but now they 
have both seen and hated both me and my father." (verses 23, 
24.) Now it was impossible for them to have seen and hated 
the father in any other sense than as divine goodness mani- 
fested in his speech and actions. For the Lord says, on an- 
other occasion, (John, v. 37,) they had neither heard the father's 
voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And John (i. 18) says, 
" No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten son 
which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him :" by 
which he means that no man has had presented to his outward 
vision, or to his mental perception, the essential divine principle 
or divine love, except so far as that principle is manifested in 
the person and character of Jesus Christ. For in 1 Ep. iv. 2, 
he uses the same words, " No man hath seen God at any time;" 
and proceeds, " If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and 
his love is perfected in us :" and afterwards, (verse 16,) " God 
is love ; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and 
God in him :" thus showing that God is a principle of love, and 
that God is in us in the degree that that principle operates in 
us and produces the activities of love to one another. 

Now that this principle of divine love is most fully mani- 
fested in Jesus Christ, John leaves us to infer from these words, 
(verse 15) : " Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of 

19 



206 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God :" for to confess that 
Jesus is the son of God, is to believe that he came forth from 
God so as to be God in form — that is, that he came forth from 
divine love so as to present the divine love in form — thus that 
he is the outward form of the divine essence* Or, in other 
words, it is to believe that he is the divine truth manifesting the 
divine goodness — for nothing but a divine form can adequately- 
present to view a divine essence, and the form of the divine 
essence is truth itself. Hence the idea of Jesus Christ as the 
son of God, implies nothing less than that he is that very truth 
itself, or that divine truth which manifests the divine goodness. 
And to confess that Jesus is the son of God in this sense, is not 
only to make a verbal asseveration of belief in the proposition 
which asserts that such is his divine character, nor to make a 
mere intellectual assent to that proposition; but the confession 
to which the apostle here alludes consists in an internal ac- 
knowledgment, or a full assent of the will, that such is the 
Lord's character ; and this acknowledgment or assent, if sincere 
and abiding, leads inevitably to the practice of his precepts. 
In short, the true confession of the Lord, is simply the keeping 
of his commandments. For Paul says, " with the heart man 
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is 
made unto salvation." (Rom. x. 10.) 

And if Jesus Christ is the divine truth, or the form of divine 
goodness, his precepts, embracing as they do his truth, must be 
the dictates of the truest wisdom, which point out the way to 
eternal life, and which, therefore, in the conformity of the will 
to them produce the only true righteousness, and in the regu- 
lation of the life by them lead to the only sure salvation. 
Hence, to believe, that is, to acknowledge from the will, that 
Jesus is the son of God, or the divine truth, brings us under the 
necessity of obeying his precepts, as much as a sick man's be- 
lieving that a physician can cure him, brings him under the 
necessity of taking his prescriptions. But, as the precepts of 
Jesus are practised, the character of him who practises them 
becomes, as we have said, perfected in the internal perception 
and the outward exhibition of all that is good and true ; which 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES- 207 

is to have the love of God shed abroad in the heart. And thus 
it is that the love of God is shed abroad in the heart, that is, in 
the will and its consequent conduct, so as to have God himself 
dwelling in the man who is thus perfected. 

Thus, then, it is because the belief of the Lord's divinity, 
with the consequent practice of his precepts, brings men into 
the state in which they perceive the divine love in their hearts, 
that John says, " Whosoever shall confess [that is, show by his 
life] that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelieth in him, and he 
in God." And, consequently, this apostle clearly shows that 
Jesus Christ, being the visible manifestation of divine love, is 
the "only mediator" between the divine love and men; and 
that he makes one with the divine love as a form makes one 
with its essence. 

Hence we can clearly see what John means when he says, 
(1 Gen. Ep. v. 20,) " We know that the son of God is come." 
For the word, or the truth, is God ; because " the word was in the 
beginning with God, and God was the word ;" and the son of 
God is the bodily presentation of this word, or truth, in a lower 
degree ; and the true disciples of the Lord are those who so 
learn of him as to have the truth, which is the son of God, 
that is, a bodily presentation of the Lord's truth or command- 
ments formed in their lives by regeneration from him. And 
therefore when any are so far regenerated from the Lord as to 
have his truth not only acknowledged in their wills, but also 
presented bodily in the lower degree of their outward lives, then 
they know that the son of God is come. They see, they feel, they 
have the vital experience of the truth of good in their own re- 
generated lives. This is what John meant when he said " We 
know that the son of God is come" And that such is really 
the meaning of these words, must surely be plain to every 
spiritually-minded person who duly considers what follows — 
" and hath given us an understanding that we may know him 
that is true : and we are in him that is true, in his son Jesus 
Christ — This is the true God, and eternal life." 

To clearly understand these latter clauses of this passage, 
we have only to bear in mind the remarks which have already 



208 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

been made upon the passages just quoted from the writings of 
the same apostle. If our minds have dwelt profitably upon 
those passages, and have heeded well the remarks which have 
been made upon them, we have clearly discerned that John 
calls the word which was in the beginning with God, and was 
God, and which was made flesh and dwelt among us so as to 
be " God-with-us" — the son of God. He also calls this word 
made flesh " the true light," and says, in another place, that 
" God is light." From which we may conclude that this word 
made flesh is divine truth made manifest ; because truth is spirit- 
ual light. And hence the son of God is divine truth proceed- 
ing from and manifesting divine goodness or love. For John 
says that God is love, and the son of God must be the mani- 
fested form of God. Hence the son of God is the manifested 
form of love. And it is perfectly clear ft that Jesus Christ is this 
son of God : for he is the word made flesh and "the truth." 
When, then, John said, " we know that the son of God has 
come" he means that divine truth, which is the form of divine 
love, had been manifested in the character of Jesus Christ, — 
and that they his disciples, had had a perception of this divine 
truth in their own minds, by having the image and likeness of 
that character stamped on their souls by regeneration. Hence 
he says, " And hath given us an understanding that we may 
know him that is true" — that is, the divine truth in and through 
Jesus Christ has opened our understandings, and has elevated 
our mental perceptions, so that we can see the truth. 

The word in the original, which is rendered " him that is 
true," is rov «Aj$0/v0v, a mere adjective, without any substantive 
which it qualifies, and thus may be taken in a substantive sense 
to signify truth in the abstract, that is, the principle of truth. 
And hence this clause signifies that the Lord Jesus has given 
us an understanding whereby we can understand the truth. 
This is in fact, too, what Jesus Christ did. For, in Luke, 
xxiv. 45, we read that he " opened the understandings of his 
disciples that they might understand the Scriptures." So, 
while journeying with the two who were going to Emmaus, he 
" beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, expounded unto 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 209 

them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself," And 
after he had vanished from their sight, " they said one to an- 
other, did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us 
by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures ?" 

This, then, is the sense in which we are to understand John 
when he says the son of God " hath given us an understand- 
ing that we may know him that is true :" he hereby implies 
that Jesus Christ has elevated our spiritual state, so that we 
can understand the truth. 

" And we are in him that is true, in his son Jesus Christ." 
This clause, too, if literally rendered, would imply that we are 
in the principle of truth, and the son of it, that is, the sensible 
or bodily presentation of it in a still lower degree. For him 
that is true, signifies, as we have seen, abstract truth, or the 
principle of truth, as the son of God, and hence the son of him 
that is true is a bodily manifestation of this essential truth to the 
senses or the lowest perceptive faculty of man. And such a bodily 
manifestation of divine truth was Jesus Christ. For he was the 
word made flesh. These words, therefore, imply that we are 
the disciples of Jesus Christ — that is, those who believe in him 
and practise his precepts. For in the degree that we believe 
in Jesus and practise his precepts, we are in the principle 
which proceeds from him, and this is the truth : because " in 
him is life, and the life is the light of men" — he is " the way, 
the truth, and the life" — and the words he " speaks unto us are 
spirit and are life ;" and John says " the spirit is truth" And 
the Lord plainly shows what it is to be in him, to abide in him 
and to be his disciples, (John, xv. 5, 8,) where he says, " He 
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much 
fruit ;" and " herein is my father glorified, that ye bear much 
fruit — so shall ye be my disciples ;" and again " ye are my 
friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." (verse 14.) 

Thus, we are in him that is true, when we are in a rational 
conviction of truth, and in the son of him that is true, when our 
characters are formed according to that rational conviction. 
For the life of a rational conviction of truth, or the life of truth 
in the abstract, is a bodily presentation of that truth in a lowe? 

19* 



210 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

degree, thus is the son of that truth. And as Jesus Christ was 
the most perfect, the infinite life of truth in the abstract, that is 
of the Word of God, and his Gospel is the record of his life, 
hence we are in him that is true, and in the son of him that is 
true, when our understandings are enlightened, when our wills 
are rectified, and when our lives are formed by the Gospel of 
Jesus Christ. When, then, the disciples of the Lord are re- 
generated from him, and thus have "the old man put off, which 
is corrupt after the deceitful lusts of the flesh, and have the 
new man put on, which is created after God in righteousness 
and true holiness," they know that the son of God has come, 
they see him reflected in their own mind as in a mirror. And 
they perceive that this son of God has given them an under- 
standing, by which they are enabled to see the truth in rational 
light — thus to know him that is true ; and to appropriate this 
truth into their wills — thus to be in him that is true ; and to 
bring this truth into their lives — thus to be in the son of him 
that is true. 

Now when any are in the son of him that is true, that is, 
when they are in the life of rational truth, they perceive that 
the perfect life of that truth is divine. Thus they are enabled 
to perceive that Jesus Christ, who is the perfect, the infinite, life 
of divinely rational truth, is divine. And hence they are en- 
abled to say, This, — that is, the perfect life of divine rational 
truth, which is the Divine Humanity of Jehovah, which is Jesus 
Christ, — this is the true God and eternal life ! 

Thus you see that John confirms the doctrine that the Lord 
as to his human nature is divine ; and that he clearly inculcates 
that Jesus Christ, the Divine Humanity of Jehovah God, is the 
true God, and therefore the proper object of christian worship. 

We know, there are those who quibble about the antecedent 
to the pronoun this; and say that it refers to God, and not to 
Jesus Christ as the son of God. We cannot, therefore, better 
conclude this discourse, and our whole subject, than with a 
cursory argument on this point. 

It would seem, from the tenor of the Epistles of John, that 
the minds of the early Christians were unsettled by heretical 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 211 

opinions, already broached in the church, with regard to the 
incarnation of the divine truth. It was probably held that 
the divine truth had been manifested ; but it was perhaps sup- 
posed that it had been by means of a vision only, and not by 
an actual incarnation. Hence, that there was such a being as 
Jesus Christ ; but that he had existed only in an ideal and not 
in an actual corporeal form. To combat this heresy, therefore, 
appears to be the drift of John in his Epistles. Thus he con- 
demns those as anti-christ who deny that Jesus had come in 
the flesh. And by all the force of his authority maintains that 
the divine truth, or the son of God, had actually assumed a 
human form upon earth; and clearly, unequivocally and em- 
phatically asserts, that Jesus Christ — who was the divine truth 
so manifested — is the true God and eternal life. 

This was the grand object of the apostle's design — to show 
that Jesus Christ, he whom they had known on earth, with 
whom they had been from the beginning, from whose own lips 
they had received command to preach the gospel, whose gospel 
had been preached and received, and by the knowledge and 
practice of whose precepts his disciples had been formed as a 
body from him its head — it was the main object of the apostle's 
design, I say, to show that this Jesus was not merely an ideal 
but an actual manifestation of divine truth, and thus was him- 
self the very and eternal God, the fountain and stream of 
eternal life. Hence we see the error of those who argue that 
the pronoun this does not refer to Jesus Christ as its antecedent, 
but to the father understood. For who doubts, or ever doubted, 
that the father is the true God. The first Christians had wor- 
shiped Jesus Christ as God ; and this was the matter -which 
had now come into doubt. John was writing about the true 
object of worship, and cautions those to whom he writes to be- 
ware of idols. In order to show them the true object, it was 
not necessary for him to say that the father is the true God ; 
for this they all knew as well as he did. The only question 
was about the son. Some were for rejecting the son, and for 
going to the father direct without him. They denied that the 
son had come. And it was for the express purpose of combat- 



212 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS 

ing these notions that John writes. Thus it was his design to 
show that the son is the true object of worship ; and that it is 
impossible to worship the father without worshiping the son. 
Hence he says, " Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus 
is the Christ? He is anti-christ that denieth the father and the 
son. Whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the father." 
Thus, in answer to those who were for rejecting the son, and 
for worshiping the father out of the son, he directly asserts that 
they who have not the son have not the father : of course, inti- 
mates that they who do not worship the son cannot worship the 
father who is in him, and whom he manifests. And, in an- 
swer to those who denied that the son had come, he as directly 
asserts, that " every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. And this is that 
spirit of anti-christ whereof ye have heard that it should come." 
Again, he says expressly, " we know that the son of God is 
come ; and hath given us an understanding that we may know 
him that is true : and we are in him that is true, in his son 
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." Thus 
he completely rebuts the idea that the son had not come, and 
that the son was not to be worshiped, by directly asserting that 
they could not have or worship the father without the son, and 
by unequivocally declaring that the son had come, and that the 
son is the true God and eternal life. 

That John refers to Jesus Christ when he says " this is the 
true God and eternal life," is confirmed by the eleventh verse, 
where he says, " And this is the record, that God hath given to 
us eternal life ; and this life is in his son." For if eternal life 
is in the son, then the son may be called eternal life. And, 
therefore, John must have had reference to the son, when he 
said this is eternal life. Moreover he that hath eternal life in 
him, and may be called eternal life, is the true God. Jesus him- 
self also says, " As the father hath life in himself, so hath he 
given to the son to have life in himself." And as none can 
have life in himself but God, therefore the son is God. And 
hence John meant the son when he said, " This is the true God 
and eternal life." Again, the son is expressly called God in 



THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 213 

Ps. xlv. 6, and in Heb. i. 8, as well as in this verse of John — 
" But unto the son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and 
ever,* a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." 

But nothing can be more directly to the point than the express 
and emphatic words of our text : •* Unto us a child is born, unto 
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero, 
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." From this passage, 
there cannot be a shadow of doubt, that there was the best au- 
thority for calling the son, God. And hence we are not under 
the necessity of supposing that the term God must in all cases 
refer solely to the essential divine principle or to the father. 
And let it be well remarked that it is the child who is born unto 
us, that is to be called God. For then it will be most clear 
that it is Jesus Christ who is to be called God. And moreover, 
call to mind the words quoted in our last discourse from Paul, 
" It was commanded that all the angels of God should worship 
the son" Thus it is clear that the son is the object of angelic 
worship ; and He whom angels worship, ought surely to be 
worshiped by men. Yet no being ought to be worshiped besides 
the true God. Therefore, John was justified in calling the son 
the true God, and in holding him up as the proper object of 
worship. And hence we may conclude that he does call him 
" the true God and eternal life ;" and, of course, that John 
considered Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten son of God, 
as his God. 

Wherefore, Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles ; and 
is, both now and for ever, the only true object of all christian 
worship. And therefore, if any are worshiping any other God 
than him — if any can think of the one, ever living, and true God 
without at the same time thinking solely of Jesus Christ, or 
think of Jesus Christ, without at the same time thinking solely 
of the one, ever living, and true God — they are guilty of idola- 
try ! and it greatly behooves them, in view of any other notions 
of God which they may have formed, to take heed to this 
apostle's closing and most solemn injunction — " Little children, 

KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS !" 



SERMON XIII, 



MATTHEW, XXVII. 46. 



« And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, 
Eli, lama sabachthani 1 that is to say, My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me?" 

In heretofore discoursing upon the nature of the godhead, we 
have illustrated, it is presumed, with sufficient clearness, how 
there is and must be a trinity in the one God. We have shown 
the nature of the word which was in the beginning with God, 
and was God. We have shown how this word was made flesh 
and dwelt among us. The perfect unity of the humanity and 
divinity has been demonstrated. So that in Jesus Christ God 
is seen as man and man as God, as a divine essence in a hu- 
man form, or a divine soul in a human body, and thus one as 
a soul and body are one — one God in one person, the only 
proper object of all christian worship — " God over all blessed 
for ever" — " the only true God and eternal life." 

But there is no subject so difficult, in the nature of things, 
for the sensual mind to conceive, as the unity of God and man 
in one person. And appearances in the letter of the Word are 
so much against the idea, that, while the sensual mind rests in 
those appearances, the difficulty of its conception is increased. 
Hence it is almost impossible to explain this matter to such a 
mind. 

To appearance, man is a determined form, limited and fixed 
in time and space, and, though possessed of powers of almost 
indefinite variety and extent, yet essentially ignorant, weak, 
dependent and erring ; while God is supposed to be all that is 
opposite to these qualities — formless, unlimited mind — infinitely 



UNITARIAN DIFFICULTIES. 215 

above time and space, yet omniscient and omnipresent — totally 
independent of all beings — in himself possessed of life — eternal, 
infinite, all wise and all powerful in his being and attributes, 
and absolutely unerring in all his operations. To conceive a 
union of such opposites, therefore, is impossible. And hence, 
to speak of a divine human is, to some minds, a solecism — is 
sneered at as a contradiction in terms. And to them, the as- 
sertion that Jesus Christ is God, is equally so. His own 
declarations that he and the father are one, and they that see 
him see the father — that he is in the father and the father in 
him — that he has life in himself as the father has life in himself 
— that he has all power in heaven and on earth — that he is the 
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and 
the Last, who was, who is, and who is to come, the Almighty, 
are interpreted to mean any thing but what they really do 
mean — his individual unity and identity with the whole god- 
head. These declarations are supposed to have a figurative 
meaning — to mean that he, as the first and highest, though 
subordinate, agent of the Divine Being, is gifted with those su- 
preme titles on account of his delegated divine functions — that 
he is called God as angels, to whom the word of God came, 
were so called. They contend that it would have been arro- 
gant and blasphemous in the extreme for him to have claimed 
those titles to himself as expressing qualities inherent in him as 
his own ; and they prove, to their own satisfaction, that he used 
them in relation to himself only in some modified, conditional, 
relative or derivative sense. And they feel themselves fully 
borne out in their view by the letter of the Sacred Scriptures. 
Hence, when, from these his own declarations, you argue for 
his unity with the Essential Divinity, their minds instantly re- 
vert to those other sayings of his in which he confesses his 
inferiority to the father, or his subordination to him, — as where 
he declares, " My father is greater than I" — " I speak not of 
myself, but the father that is in me, he doeth the work" — " I 
ascend unto your father and my father, to my God and your 
God," and, in our text, " My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me !" — and they reply, how can Jesus Christ be one 



216 DIFFICULTY IN CONCEIVING HOW 

and the same God with the Essential Divinity when he ex* 
pressly addresses that Divinity as his God ? And when he 
calls himself the father, and says he is one with him, how can 
he literally mean what he says, when he elsewhere positively de- 
clares his inferiority to the father? It is, indeed, a strong case 
for them as well as for us. Both of us are justified in our 
views by the mere letter of the Word. The flaming sword of 
the cherubim turns every way. The Lord does indeed say as 
positively in the letter that the father is greater than he, as he 
positively says that he and the father are one, and that they 
who see him see the father. So that, if we stick in the mere 
letter, the Lord apparently contradicts himself. Hence, those 
who look upon him only as a man, reconcile his words by sup- 
posing him, when he asserts his identity and unity with the 
father, to speak figuratively ; and to speak literally, when he 
asserts his inferiority to him. And they explain those his 
figurative expressions, so as to make them harmonize with 
these which they deem the literal truth. 

The reason why they suppose those to be figurative, of 
course, and these literal is, because it is contrary to all appear- 
ance that Jesus as man should be God, and they rest in 
appearances. It was so with the Jews, who when he asserted 
his divinity took up stones to stone him, because " he, being a 
man, made himself equal with God." The Jews, in this case, 
judged according to appearance, and the appearance to them 
was indeed such as to justify their judgment. And nothing 
was more contrary to the appearance than the Lord's assertion 
to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the father." If he 
had been to appearance the father, Philip would not have asked 
him to show them the father, and he need not have asserted his 
and the father's identity with so much asseveration. Thus, if 
he had manifestly appeared to be the father, he need not have 
said to Philip, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet 
hast thou not known me, Philip?" For Philip would of course 
have discerned him to be the father, if he had appeared such to 
Philip. Hence we say his assertion to Philip was contrary to 
appearance ; and, consequently, those in the present day who 



GOD AND MAX CAN BE ONE PERSON. 217 

rest in appearances, and suppose things as they appear to 
them, to be alone really true, suppose the Lord's words to 
Philip to be figurative expressions, and explain them accord- 
ingly to mean something other than their literal import, namely, 
that he and the father are one God as a body and soul are one 
person ; so that when we think of him we should think of God, 
and when we think of God we should think of him : for if 
Philip saw the father when he saw Jesus in person, we must 
think of the father when we think of Jesus, because thinking of 
any one is seeing him in spirit. 

But, to the sensual mind, God did not when he was on earth, 
and does not now, appear to be in Jesus ; and, thinking as 
that mind does according to appearance, it, consequently, can- 
not think of God when it thinks of Jesus ; but thinks of God as 
a formless, unlimited, infinite, eternal and omnipotent spirit, 
separate and distinct from Jesus Christ ; and only thinks of 
Jesus Christ, as he appeared on earth, to be " a man of sor- 
rows and acquainted with grief." (Isa. liii. 3.) And hence, as 
we have said, it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for 
this mind to conceive of God and man as existing in one per- 
son. And all our attempts to explain this unity to the sensual 
man are abortive, because no explanation of ours can ever 
make it true according to appearance, that is, true as things 
appear to him. 

In fact, the subject is not to be brought down to the sensual 
mind, but the sensual mind is to be brought up to the subject. 
The sensual and natural man must, by regeneration, be raised 
out of the region of mere sensuous appearances, that is, be 
raised, in mental perception, above the mere natural plane of 
being, and be made by regeneration to see things as they ap- 
pear in the spiritual plane, before he can see Jesus as God and 
God as Jesus. There must be, as we have fully shown on an- 
other occasion, a renewing and transforming of the natural 
man's spirit by the spirit of God, sent unto him by Jesus Christ 
from the father, before he can have any such testimony to the 
character of Jesus Christ in his soul. And this we may con- 
firm, more particularly than we did on that occasion, by Paul's 

20 



218 DIFFICULTY IN CONCEIVING HOW 

assertion, that " no man can call Jesus Lord but by the holy 
ghost." To call Jesus Lord is to see and acknowledge him to 
be Jehovah in form or person. For Jehovah himself expressly 
says, (Isaiah, xlii. 8,) " I am the Lord, that is my name, and 
my glory will I not give to another." The name of Jehovah 
could not therefore be given to Jesus, if he were another than 
Jehovah, without making Jehovah himself utter an untruth, 
which the holy ghost, or the spirit of Jehovah, certainly could 
not do. Yet the holy ghost would do this, if it gave unto any 
one to call Jesus Lord, while Jesus were a separate and dis- 
tinct person from Jehovah ; for then Jehovah, by his own spirit, 
would, contrary to his express declaration in Isaiah, have given 
his name, and so his glory, to another. But this is impossible ; 
and therefore, we say, when the holy ghost gives unto any one 
to call Jesus Lord, it gives unto him to see and acknowledge 
that Jesus and Jehovah are one person, and so one God. But, 
until the sensual or natural man is so operated upon by the 
holy ghost as to be raised above the sphere of sensuous appear- 
ances, he cannot see and acknowledge this identity and unity 
of Jesus and Jehovah ; and thus the sensual and mere natural 
man must continue to think of Jehovah as God and Jesus as 
man, separate and distinct the one from the other, notwith- 
standing all our efforts to explain their real unity and identity. 
Still such men are perpetually calling upon us for explana- 
tions of this to them inexplicable truth. When we speak of, 
and demonstrate from one class of scriptural quotations, the 
unity of Jesus and the father, they fly into the citadel of some 
certain passage of Scripture favouring their views, and defy us 
to dislodge them. Their minds pertinaciously adhere in those 
other scripture sayings, spoken according to mere appearances 
in the sensual mind, in which Jesus is represented addressing 
the father as a person separate from and superior to him, and 
they exclaim with seeming triumph, " Well, what do you make 
of these passages, then !" And foremost among these passages 
is our text, wherein Jesus on the cross is represented as address- 
ing the father and exclaiming, just previously to his giving up 
the ghost, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !" 



GOD AND MAN CAN BE ONE PERSON. 219 

It behooves us, then, to show how this apparent separation of 
Jesus and the father can consist with the idea of their real unity 
and identity. 

We shall first declare the doctrine of the new church on this 
subject, and then attempt its explanation. 

The faith of the new church comprehended in one universal 
idea is this, that the Lord from eternity, who is Jehovah, came 
into the world to subdue the hells and glorify his humanity; 
and that without this, no flesh could have been saved ; and that 
those persons will be saved who believe in him. 

" It is called a universal idea, because this is the universal of 
faith, and the universal of faith is that which enters into all the 
particulars and every particular of faith. It is a universal of 
faith, that God is one in person and in essence, in whom there 
is a trinity, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is that God. It is a 
universal of faith, that no mortal could have been saved unless 
the Lord had come into the world. It is a universal of faith, 
that he came into the world to glorify the humanity which he 
assumed in the world, that is, to unite it with the all-begetting 
divinity, from which are all things : thus having subdued hell, 
he keeps it in order, and under obedience, to eternity. Now as 
neither of these could have come to pass except by means of 
temptations, even to the last and most extreme of all, which 
was the passion of the cross, therefore he endured it. These 
are the universals of faith concerning the Lord." (Apoc. Rev.) 

A more particular statement may be gleaned from the follow- 
ing heads of doctrine that are treated at large in the new-church 
writings but expressed here mainly in our own language for the 
sake of brevity and adaptation. 

" Jehovah in the Word of the Old Testament, is the Lord him- 
self." By the term Lord is here meant the godhead, in a 
human form, and named Jesus Christ. The most ancient 
church, which was before the flood, and the ancient church, 
which was after the flood, understood by Jehovah no other than 
the Lord. In the Lord there is a trinity ; namely, the divinity 
itself, the divine humanity, and the divine holy proceeding ; 
and these three are one. The whole trinity in the Lord is 



220 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD 

Jehovah, and all and singular things in him are Jehovah. The 
Lord is one with the father, and no other is meant by the father 
in heaven. The Lord constitutes the universal heaven, as being 
the all and all of it; for from him is the all of innocence, of 
peace, of love, of charity, of mercy, of conjugial love, in short 
all good and all truth. Hence Moses and the Prophets, conse- 
quently the whole Word in all its particulars, have relation to 
him, and all the rites of the church represented him. In the 
Lord, when on earth, there was, as in us, an internal and an ex- 
ternal man : his internal was Jehovah, and his external was a 
form of goodness and truth thence derived. This external form 
of goodness and truth, when made fully correspondent to the 
divine essence or Jehovah within, was said to be glorified with 
the glory which it had with the father before the world was, 
and is what is now meant by the term divine humanity. This 
divine humanity of the Lord was not only conceived, but was 
also born, of his divine essence, which is Jehovah. Thus the 
Lord as to his humanity was made Jehovah, that is divine 
good itself, in form and activity, so that his humanity had life 
in itself just as his divinity had life in itself; for the power of 
the divinity was given to the humanity, so that the humanity 
had " all power in heaven and on earth," was filled with the 
divine spirit " without measure," that is, infinitely, and hence 
could of himself lay down his life and take it again, as well as 
perform all other acts of divinity. 

That the Lord was from eternity, manifestly appears from 
the Word, and especially from his saying " before Abraham 
was I AM ;" and that David called him, who was as to the flesh 
his son, in spirit Lord. Hence he himself spake by Moses 
and the Prophets ; he himself appeared to many in an angelic 
human form, and it is on those occasions said that he was Je- 
hovah. Hence it is that Paul speaks of Jesus Christ as if the 
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" and John speaks of him 
as coming in the flesh, thus clearly intimating that he had an 
eternal existence before he so came. 

But the greatest of all mysteries, which even the angels have 
desired to look into, cannot be revealed to any except to those 



STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 221 

who are in celestial perception, as were the men of the most 
ancient or celestial church. From the men of that church it 
has now been revealed, that Jehovah himself was the Lord as 
to the divine humanity, when he descended into heaven, and 
flowed into men through heaven ; for heaven represents a man 
as to all his members, and therefore is called the greatest man, 
or man on the largest scale and in the largest form. The divinity 
itself in heaven, or in the greatest man, was the divine hu- 
manity, and was Jehovah himself thus clothed with humanity. 
This humanity it was that, in descending to earth and acting 
in men as rational free agents so as to mould men to itself, pro- 
duced in men on earth a truly human form and activity. But 
when mankind became such that the divinity itself clothed 
with the heavens as the divine humanity, could no longer 
affect them correspondently to itself, that is, when Jehovah could 
no longer come to man, because he had so far removed himself 
from the divine form and activity by degenerating into a con- 
trary state, then Jehovah, who is the Lord as to the divine es- 
sence, transcended the heavens, and himself descended to the 
earth, by clothing that essence in matter, through conception 
in and birth from a virgin, so as to take upon it a natural hu- 
manity, as to external form and quality just like that of other 
men on earth. But all of this external humanity which was 
derived from the virgin, he expelled by divine means, and sub- 
stituted an external humanity which was purely divine, by 
production from the divine essence. 

This production is to us, and must ever remain to all finite 
minds, an inexplicable operation. So incomprehensible is it 
thought to be, that some presume to pronounce the supposition 
of it absurd. We cannot undertake to explain it ; we can only 
essay to vindicate the supposition of such a thing from the 
charge of absurdity. At least, we can conceive that the Lord's 
material humanity was expelled, and another humanity substi- 
tuted in its place, just as, in the petrifaction of wood, stony 
particles are made to take the place and assume perfectly the 
form of the woody particles which pass off in the process : so 
that, as a whole tree, iiot only as to general form of trunk, 

20 * 



222 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD 

branches, twigs and external bark, but also as to the internal 
barks, and the very grain and fibrous texture, is, by petrifac- 
tion, made to exist a perfect stony fac-simile of the previous 
woody structure, so, by glorification in the Lord, a perfect di- 
vine external human substance, form and activity, was made 
to exist instead of the humanity which he assumed from the 
virgin. Hence, as the new church expressly teaches, " with 
the Lord, the former forms, which were from the maternal 
principle, were altogether destroyed and extirpated, and divine 
forms received in their place ; for the divine love does not agree 
with any but a divine form; all other forms it absolutely casts 
out : hence it is, that the Lord, when glorified, was no longer 
the son of Mary." (A. C. 6872.) 

Thus the divine essence descended into an ultimate form, so 
as to be the very omega, the very last, the very end of its 
whole creation. And in, by and from this ultimate form, the 
divine essence spread a sphere of its own quality, so as to fill, 
not only the heavens as before, but also the earths, with a 
saving efficacy. For infernal spirits could not abide the sphere 
of a quality so totally contrary to theirs, and were obliged to 
recede from it into outer darkness ; and by this recession the 
heavens, which they were infesting, and the bodies of men, 
which they had possessed, were freed from their influences, so 
that both angels and men were made free to reject the influences 
of hell, and once more to act correspondent^ to the influences 
of the divine essence through heaven, so as to be capable of 
living the life and enjoying the felicities of heaven, which is 
salvation. Hence the Lord when on earth said, " Now is the 
judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be 
cast out." (John, xii. 31.) And it is recorded in sundry places, 
that he actually expelled evil, false and unclean spirits from the 
bodies of those whom they had possessed. And, moreover, the 
seventy disciples, whom he sent forth clothed with his power, 
returned saying, " Lord, even the devils are subject unto, us 
through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as 
lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to 
tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the 



STATED A'JKD ILLUSTRATED. 223 

enemy ; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke, x. 
17 — 19.) And, further, the apostles were endued with power 
from on high to dispossess men of magical spirits, and to heal 
diseases which evil spirits had through man's perverse volitions 
induced. Thus Jehovah, who is the Lord as to the divine es- 
sence, having descended and taken upon him humanity, by 
divine conception, and by birth from a virgin like another man, 
but having expelled by divine means all that he received from 
the virgin, and having substituted a divine human form and 
activity, so as to spread therefrom all that is holy, he existed 
a divine humanity, which was an essence or life in itself, filling 
the universal heaven and the universal earth, and effecting sal- 
vation with those who before could not be saved. And this 
divine human form, existing and active in ultimates, is now the 
Lord, who alone is man, and from whom alone mortal men 
have that goodness and that truth which constitute them truly 
men, in making them like himself; and thus the Lord saves 
them from their sins, by removing out of sight all evil forms, 
and inducing on them from himself all those forms of good, 
which in the complex present that form which is truly human. 
Thus " liberation from hell by the Lord was accomplished 
by his assuming humanity, and thereby subjugating the hells 
and reducing to order all things in the heavens, which could 
not have been done by any other means than by a humanity 
so assumed ;" for the Divinity operates from first principles to 
ultimates, thus from himself by those things which proceed 
consecutively from himself and exist in connection with him- 
self in ultimates, which things, existing in a complex and con- 
centrate ultimate form, constitute his humanity. This is the 
operation of the divine power in heaven and the world. Hence 
the humanity of Jehovah is called his right arm, because the right 
arm is expressive of power; and hence Jesus Christ, as being the 
humanity of Jehovah and possessing his power, is represented as 
sitting on the throne of God, or standing on the right hand of 
God, and is said by Paul to be the " power of God." He, as the 
power and wisdom of God, is the form and order of divine love 
impressed upon, or spread through, universal human nature in 



224 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD 

the lowest as well as the highest planes of being. And, ac- 
cording to this order, they who are of the spiritual church can 
now be elevated into heaven, and enjoy eternal blessedness, 
who could not have been saved according to the order which 
prevailed before " Christ came in the flesh." For the Lord, 
before his advent, arranged all things by or through heaven, 
into the confines of which evil spirits had ascended, so as to 
intercept and pervert his influences in their descent to men on 
earth, so that men on earth could not be raised up to spiritu- 
ality of life. But, afterwards, he arranged all things by or 
through his own humanity, which he glorified and made divine 
in the world ; by which there was such an accession of strength, 
that evil spirits from on all sides receded and were shut up in 
their hells, and those were elevated into heaven who before 
could not be elevated. (A. C. 7920.) 

Now the Lord, " as to the external man in respect to Jehovah, 
is called the Son of God, but, in respect to his mother, is called 
the Son of Man." And " the Lord's human essence [consi- 
dered distinctively from his divine essence] is what is called the 
Son of Man." Or " by the Son of Man is signified the essential 
truth, and by the Son of God the essential good, which apper- 
tain to the Lord's human essence when made divine." (A. C. 
2159.) But, in respect to his divine essence, " the Lord, in the 
Word, is called Jehovah as to the divine good, for divine good 
is the very Divinity, and he is called the Son of God as to 
divine truth, for divine truth proceeds from divine good as a son 
from a father, and is also said to be born. Hence while the 
Lord, on earth, had, in the process of glorifying the natural 
humanity which he had assumed, made this humanity only 
divine truth, or while he as to his external form and activity, 
was as yet only divine truth, he called the divine good, which 
was Jehovah within him, his father, since, as was said, divine 
truth proceeds and is born from divine good ; but after that the 
Lord fully glorified his external form, which was done when he 
endured the last of temptations on the cross, he then made his 
humanity divine good also, that is, Jehovah ; and, in consequence 
thereof, the very divine truth proceeded from his divine or glo- 



STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 225 

rifled humanity. This divine truth, thus proceeding, is what is 
called in the Word the holy spirit, and is the holy principle 
which ever proceeds solely from the Lord's humanity glorified." 
(A. C. 7499.) Hence it was said that " the holy ghost was 
not given because Jesus was not yet glorified ;" and hence it 
was that the holy ghost could be imparted by Jesus merely 
breathing on his disciples. 

Such is the doctrine of the new church concerning the Lord 
in a more particular form. And from it we may deduce the 
following points : 1. That the Lord is one with the father. 
2. That the Lord was from eternity. 3. That the Lord rules 
the universe. 4. That he had when on earth an external with 
an internal, which was as a form of truth with an essence of 
good in it. 5. That the Lord in his essence is now nothing 
else but divine good, and this as to each principle, namely as 
to the essential divine principle and as to the divine humanity. 
But " whereas divine truth is not in divine good, but from it, 
for so the divine good appears in heaven ; and whereas divine 
good appears as divine truth ; therefore, for the sake of man's 
apprehension, the Lord's divinity is distinguished into divine 
good and divine truth, and divine good is in the Word called 
the father, and divine truth is called the son." (A. C. 3704.) 

This universal and particular view of the new-church faith 
respecting the Lord, will enable us to understand what she still 
more particularly teaches concerning his alternate states of hu- 
miliation and glorification during the progress of his life on earth. 
And the right understanding of this can alone enable us to see 
why he should in some parts of the letter of the Word speak of 
himself as inferior to the father, and in others as equal with him. 

It has been shown that the Lord possessed both divinity and 
humanity — divinity from his father, Jehovah, and humanity 
from the virgin, Mary. Hence he was both God and man, 
having a divine essence and a human nature — a divine essence 
from the father, and a human nature from the mother, whence 
he was equal to the father in respect to his divinity, but inferior 
to the father in respect to his humanity. This was his condi- 
tion on earth, Now this humanity derived from the mother, 



226 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD 

evidently could not be transmuted into the divinity ; for it was 
not only finite, but corrupt, and finity and corruption cannot be 
transmuted into infinity and incorruption. This is so manifest 
that it is admitted by all, and is expressly taught in theathana- 
sian creed. And it is so admitted and so taught because every 
mind that is at all rational perceives in an instant that any 
transmutation or commixtion of what is finite and what is in- 
finite is impossible. But still the Word throughout teaches, and 
therefore the creed of Athanasius also teaches, that the essential 
divinity did take to itself humanity, and did, in some way in- 
scrutable to mortals, so unite humanity to itself, as to make 
even that humanity divine from itself. And that this union 
was as of a soul with a body ; so that the soul and the body, 
although distinct, were nevertheless one divine person, who was 
divine even as to the body; so that the very body of this person 
rose, unlike the body of any other man, and, ascending far 
above all heavens, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty 
on High, that is, became intimately united to and one with the 
inmost principle of divinity : so that the Lord, even in respect 
lo his humanity, is called, by the Prophets, Jehovah and God ; 
and, by the Evangelists, is called the Lord, God, Messiah or 
Christ, and the Son of God, in whom we must believe, and by 
whom we must be saved. There can be no doubt of this with 
any one who studies the whole Word dispassionately and with 
a sole desire to know the truth from the love of truth for its 
own sake. And we could confirm it by a volume of quotations 
from all parts of the Word, if this were the proper place. 

Now, if these two positions are true, namely, that the Lord, 
who was Jehovah as to essence, took by birth from a virgin a 
humanity, which was finite and corrupt, and which therefore 
could not be united to divinity, but yet, nevertheless, did form 
to himself a humanity which was divine, with which " he as- 
cended far above the heavens that he might fill all things," then 
it follows necessarily that he must have put off entirely the 
humanity which he had from the mother, and have put on a 
humanity by production of substance and form from the divine 
essence within him. 



STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 227 

How this process took place, is certainly, as we have already- 
confessed, a divine mystery which no finite mind can compre- 
hend, yet it is a truth so unequivocally revealed in the Word, 
that it cannot be denied without denying the Word itself. And 
yet, though this process cannot be comprehended, still the sup- 
position of it may be seen to be not absurd. For there are 
images and likenesses of it every where in the creation, which 
God has made, and which constantly gives some reflection of 
its maker, so that the invisible things of his eternal power and 
godhead may be known thereby. Hence we have tried to illus- 
trate it by the process of petrifaction, in which precisely the 
same form is made to exist from an entirely different substance. 
And, from this simile, we may see that it is not impossible or 
absurd to imagine, that a divine substance might have been 
made to assume precisely the form of the Lord's humanity, by 
displacing and exactly replacing the material substance of 
which it was previously composed : so that, when the Lord 
was risen as to the body, he would appear, to the spiritual eye 
of his disciples, in precisely the same body with which their 
natural eye was familiar on earth. And that this is not mere 
conjecture is proved from the fact of his transfiguration on the 
mount, where he appeared to Peter, James and John in his di- 
vine body, by such an opening of their spiritual sight that they 
could see through his material enveloping and behold the divine 
form and substance that were being formed and residing inti- 
mately within it. There was a perfect identity between the two 
bodies, so that the disciples knew it to be still Jesus, though his 
countenance did shine as the sun in his strength, and his rai- 
ment did glitter as the light. Hence it is evident that the Lord 
had a divine body, in a process of formation on earth, and 
ultimately fully formed, in his material body, a perfect fac 
simile of it, and yet constituted of a substance totally distinct 
from it. And we can conceive that this process was going on 
gradually in this world, by the displacing of material particles 
and the replacing of corresponding divine particles, just as, in 
petrifaction, particles of stone are made to take the place of 
particles of wood, as these particles of wood pass off by decom- 



228 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD 

position. And we can conceive that the divine particles might 
retain the same form as the material particles which they re- 
placed, — only in a more perfect and resplendent degree,- — just 
as the stony particles preserve the general shape, intimate tex- 
ture, and altogether similar resemblance of the woody particles 
which they have replaced. 

The foregoing illustration is perfectly conceivable. But our 
own bodies, perhaps, furnish a truer image of the same process. 
We know that the particles of matter which now compose our 
bodies are incessantly passing off, by insensible as well as sen- 
sible perspiration, and by other modes of evacuation more or 
less obvious, so as to form a perfect sphere of our quality 
around us. It is this sphere of a man's quality, not only emanat- 
ing from his body, but lodged in his clothes and stamped on 
the very prints which his shoes have left in the dust of the 
earth, which enables his dog to trace him out and know him 
amidst ten thousand other men. And as these particles pass 
off, we know that they are incessantly replaced by other parti- 
cles of matter, which are made to assume the same form, so as 
to preserve perfectly a man's identity, however much his 
quality may alter. All of you have probably seen the 
marks of anchors, and other images, made on sailors' arms, 
during youth, by pricking indian ink into the skin with a needle. 
These images never disappear, although the matter of the arm 
is, as we have seen, continually changing. The reason is, that 
the particles of matter which replace those that are passing off, 
come into precisely the same form, so as to preserve that form 
unchanged although the substance is different. And this change 
of matter is not confined merely to the skin, flesh and fluids 
of the body, but takes place also in the solid and earthy struc- 
ture of the bones. The experiments of Sir Charles Bell on 
fowls has fully proved this. He fed fowls with madder, and 
found, on killing them after some time, that this dye stuff had 
entered into their very bones, and tinged them red. Then he 
discontinued giving them madder in their food, and killing and 
examining them at certain determinate intervals of time, he 
found their bones to become less and less red, until they assumed 



STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 229 

again their natural colour. Now this could not have been, 
unless the particles of bone coloured with madder had passed 
off, and had been replaced by other particles of bone fresh 
formed from the blood : which proves that the matter which 
forms even our bones is constantly changing. Hence all the 
matter of our bodies is incessantly passing off and being replaced 
by fresh matter. And it is calculated that a thorough change 
of matter takes place in every one's body about once in seven 
years. It is on this principle that medical men ground the 
necessity of revaccination every seven years. For my part, 
if I may be allowed to express an opinion on a subject that 
comes so little within my own province, I would say, I do not 
think their doctrine true. For I hold that, since the Lord's ad- 
vent, disease is in the forms, not in the substance, of the body ; 
and, as we have seen, the form of the body remains, however 
much its substance has changed. Hence I believe that the vac- 
cine form, when once induced, always remains, notwithstanding 
any periodic changes of substance which the body may undergo.*' 

* The fact that vaccination loses its power is owing", I apprehend, either 
to a spurious virus being used, or to the vaccine matter becoming- modified 
by passing successively through many human bodies. It is manifest that 
the vaccine matter must lose some of its salutary power every time it passes 
through a diseased human body : for inoculation with the scab from this hu- 
man body must have a less sanative effect than the infection taken by dairy- 
men immediately from their kine; and this effect must be less and less in 
proportion to the number of the diseased human bodies through which the 
virus has passed. But I presume the effects of the vaccine matter must also 
be weakened by passing through a healthy human body. For a human body 
made relatively more healthy by regeneration, and especially the body of an 
innocent child, must modify the vaccine matter in the same way that the or- 
derly body of a cow modifies the human small pox. The reason why the 
same disease is lighter in an animal than in a human subject must be, that 
mankind have perverted the order of their nature, which the subjects of the 
mere animal kingdom have not; so that, when a disease, generated by hu- 
man corruption, is made, in the divine economy, to pass through an animal 
body, the virulence of that disease is abated. And when the matter of this 
disease, so modified by the orderly animal body, is introduced into the human 
body, prone as this is by hereditary taint to disorder, it cures, or prevents, or 
causes to appear in a milder form, the similar and more virulent human 
disease by substitution. But, as the orderly animal body modifies Ihe human 
disease, so must the healthy and relatively innocent human body modify, 
that is, weaken by a kind of dilution, the vaccine matter. For every time 
the vaccine matter passes through the human body, it becomes more assimi- 

21 



230 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD'S 

In the same way the forms of baptism and the holy supper, and 
all other religious forms of faith and practice, remain in the 
spiritual body of man, although his material body is decom- 
posed and wholly merged in elemental nature. 

Now we must presume that the Lord's body, when on earth, 
was subject to the same law. And therefore we may conceive, 
that, as the particles of his material body, even to the bones, 
passed off, in the progress of his divinely spiritual-natural life, 
they, instead of being replaced as ours are by other material 
particles, were replaced by particles of divine substance; and 
these divine particles, coming into precisely the same relation 
to one another which the material particles before them had 
held to one another, would necessarily preserve the same form, 
although they were of a totally different substance ; and thus 
they would form to the Lord's divine essence a body, even to 
the very bones, altogether like that which they had replaced : 
so that, when appearing to his disciples after his resurrection, 
he could say to them, " Behold my hands and my feet, that it 
is I myself: handle me and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and 
bones as ye see me have." And this explains the fact that he 
could live for many days without eating material food, as his 
disciples were under the necessity of doing, because he had 
" meat to eat which they knew not of." For he received gradu- 
ally a divine substance, which supplied and satisfied his body 
in the daily wastage of its material particles, while the bodily 
wants of his disciples had to be satisfied with fresh supplies ot 
material substance. Hence he could live and act in a divinely 
natural sphere of use, without feeling the sensations of material 
hunger and thirst, which ordinary men must needs feel and 
satisfy while inhabitants of this terrestrial sphere. 

This illustration will, I presume, enable you to see that it is 

lated to the human form, so as to lose its properties of a distinctive animal 
disease. And if vaccination is to be kept efficient, each human subject must 
be vaccinated with matter directly from the cow, and not by matter which 
has been made to pass through an indefinite number of other human subjects. 
This custom of vaccinating children with matter taken from other children is 
also exceptionable, because, as I imagine, a more healthy child may, in some 
cases, be incommoded by scrofulous and other morbid forms derived from a 
less healthy one. 



STATES OF HUMILIATION AND GLORIFICATION. 231 

not absurd, but highly rational, to suppose the Lord did in 
fact, when on earth, put off a material, and put on a divine, 
humanity. And in a clear discernment of this fact, we have a 
groundwork for an explanation of the whole difficulty before us. 
For it can now be seen, at a glance, that, while this process of 
putting off the one and putting on the other was going on in the 
Lord, he was subject to alternate states, which would give rise 
to very different appearances ; and a due consideration of these 
appearances, will satisfactorily account for all the relations of 
his human infirmity and inferiority to the father which the Bible 
contains, without invalidating the position, that he is, notwith- 
standing, the very and the only God. Hence we have dwelt, 
at considerable length and with some minuteness, upon this 
subject, reserving for another occasion our application of it. to 
the removal of the difficulty in question. 

But, byway of transition to our next discourse, we will, in clos- 
ing this, just observe briefly, that, " in consequence of the Lord's 
having at first a humanity from the mother, which he put off 
by successive steps, the Lord, during his abode in the world, 
was alternately in two states ; the one a state of humiliation, or 
exinanition, and the other a state of glorification, or of union 
with the divinity which is called the father." He was in the 
state of humiliation at the time and in the degree that he was 
in the humanity from the mother; and he was in the state of 
glorification, at the time, and in the degree, that he was in the 
humanity from the father. In the state of humiliation, he 
prayed " to the father, as to a being distinct from himself; but in 
the state of glorification, he spake with the father as with him- 
self. In this latter state the Lord said that the father was in 
him, and he in the father, and that the father and he were one ; 
but in the other state he underwent temptations, and suffered the 
cross, and prayed the father not to forsake him ; for the divinity 
could not be tempted, much less could it suffer the cross." 
(Doc. of Lord, 35.) 

It was, therefore, in this last state — his state of deepest 
humiliation, that is, this state of fullest conformity of his exter- 
nal humanity to his indwelling divinity, that he exclaimed in 



232 the lord's ALTERNATE states.. 

our text, " My God ! my God ! why hast thou forsaken mef 
The Lord, thinking and feeling in infirm humanity, was tempted 
to believe that he was not one with the Divinity. It was the 
deepest temptation, because it was a consciousness in the lowest 
corporeal principle. But at the very time the Divinity within was 
putting off the last vestiges of material humanity, and as these 
vestiges passed off, it seemed to the Lord's consciousness in that 
humanity as if the life within was deserting it, when in reality 
it was leaving the life within, by ceasing to have any further 
connection with it. But as the Lord's consciousness in infirm 
humanity ceased by the last vestiges of that humanity passing 
away, he came into a fuller consciousness of life in another 
and purer humanity, which was fully correspondent to his di- 
vine essence. And as he came into this divine human conscious- 
ness, which could not be tempted with any further doubts as 
to his entire divinity, he perceived his trials were completed ; 
and, perceiving this, he cried again with a loud voice, " It is 
finished, and, bowing his head, gave up the ghost." Thus 
passed away his mere natural life. But his dying to mere natural 
-life, was his rising to divine natural life. Yet, though he be- 
came more truly alive, still the appearance was that he died ; 
and the scoffing crowd railed at the apparent fallacy of all his 
claims to, and professions of, divinity, and exulted in the feel- 
ings of self-justification which his apparent death produced— 

" Now Satan triumph'd ; * now,' he cried, 
* Who shall my power oppose I* 
But when the Son of Mary died, 
The Son of God arose. 

" He finisrTd with his dying- breath 
Redemption's grand design ; 
His human bore our sins to death, 
And then arose divine." 



SERMON XIV 



JOHN, X. 17, 18, 19. 



« I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from 
me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I 
have power to take it again. This commandment have I received 
from my father." 

The Lord spake these words in reference to the life which 
was distinctively his own as the human form of God. They 
denote that the human nature of the Lord acted of itself, or by 
its own power, from the divine nature within it. For the Lord 
says, " This commandment have T received from my father " 
They imply that the Lord put off the material humanity which 
he derived from the virgin mother, and put on a divine 
humanity from the divine essence, which was the father within 
him, by his own proper power. The laying down his life de- 
notes his putting off the human proprium which he had received 
in hereditary transmission from the mother ; and his taking his 
life again denotes his putting on a human proprium from the 
divine essence. The one process constituted his various states 
of humiliation or human inanition; the other, his various states 
of glorification or divine impletion. This text, therefore, leads 
directly to a renewed consideration of the topic with which we 
closed our last discourse. 

In our last discourse, we took a universal and particular 
view of the new-church doctrine concerning the Lord. We 
especially regarded this doctrine in its respects to the Lord's 
putting off the infirm humanity which he had assumed from the 
virgin Mary, and putting on a divine humanity by production 
from the divine essence within him, 

21* 



234 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER 

We endeavoured to illustrate that mysterious process by a 
striking operation of nature, namely, petrifaction ; and by the 
constant change and reproduction of matter in our own bodies. 
We are aware that this was but a very faint and exceedingly 
imperfect illustration of so divine and therefore inscrutable a 
work. But we did not design to attempt to make clear the 
divine process itself; for this, being a divine thing, can never 
be comprehended by mortal minds. We only strove to show 
that the supposition of such a process, when revealed in the 
Word, or to the church, is not so absurd a thing as some theo- 
logians would have us think. And we presume the rationality 
of the doctrine that Jehovah did actually take to himself a ma- 
terial humanity, and, on the gradual exinanition of this, did 
actually clothe himself with a divine humanity, in the person of 
Jesus Christ, was fully or satisfactorily shown. 

Our object in this was to make way for a clear presentation 
of the new-church view of the Lord's alternate states of humi- 
liation and glorification while he was on earth. For this view 
explains why he sometimes spake of himself as inferior to the 
father, and at other times as one and equal with him. And 
this explanation is the only solid answer that can be given to 
the objections to the doctrine of the sole and exclusive divinity 
of Jesus Christ. 

We now purpose to present again and more fully, the view 
of our church in respect to these alternate states of the Lord, 
and then proceed to such explanations of the main subject 
before us as it may suggest. 

It has been shown, that the Lord, when on earth, had, like 
another man, an internal and an external. In respect to an 
ordinary man, " there is a difference between what he receives 
from his father and what he receives from his mother. Man 
receives from his father all which is internal, that is, his very 
soul or life, but he receives from his mother all which is exter- 
nal. In a word, the interior man, or the real spirit, is from the 
father ; but the exterior man, or the body, is from the mother." 
(A. C. 1815.) Now "the Lord was as another man in every 
respect, except that he was conceived of Jehovah ; nevertheless, 



EXPLAINED BV NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 235 

he was born of a woman, a virgin ; and consequently, by such 
nativity, he derived infirmities from the virgin mother, such as 
are common to other men. These infirmities were of a cor- 
poreal nature, from which he receded, in order that things ce- 
lestial and spiritual might be presented to his view. There 
are two hereditary principles which are connate in man, one 
derived from the father, the other from the mother. The 
Lord's hereditary principle which was derived from the father 
was divine, but that which was derived from the mother was 
human and infirm. This infirm part or principle which man 
derives hereditarily from his mother, is somewhat corporeal, 
which is dispersed during regeneration ; but that which a man 
derives from his father remains to eternity. But the hereditary 
principle of the Lord derived from Jehovah, was, as just ob- 
served, divine. And moreover the Lord's humanity also was 
made divine, by production from the divine essence, and sub- 
stituted instead of the infirm maternal humanity, which was en- 
tirely expelled. In the Lord alone was there a correspondence 
of things which belong to the body with the Divinity, and such 
a correspondence as was most, or rather infinitely, perfect. 
Hence there was in him a union of things corporeal with divine 
celestial things, and of things sensual with divine spiritual things. 
Thus the Lord is the perfect man ; and the only real man." 
(A. C. 1414.) For man is not man on account of his bodily 
shape and powers, but on account of his love and his wisdom, 
or of his will and his understanding ; and so far as these inter- 
nal forms and qualities are conspicuous and potent in his body. 
And the love and the wisdom are conspicuous and potent in the 
body so far as corporeal and sensual things are made corre- 
spondent with the love and wisdom. Hence, as the Lord's 
corporeal desires and sensual perceptions were alone made 
correspondent with the divine love and the divine wisdom, 
therefore he only was made really, because divinely, man. 
He was made man, indeed, as to the very ultimates of nature ; 
whereas ordinary men can be made such only as to their 
spirits, and not as to their bodies. For the sensual and corpo- 
real principle in man is utterly depraved by the fall, and can 



236 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER 

never be regenerated. The mere natural part of men is brought 
into quiescence, and their spiritual part alone is purified and saved 
by the formation of a new will in the intellect over and above 
the old will depraved by nature. Hence an ordinary man ap- 
proximates to true manhood only so far as he is raised out of 
the body ; that is, so far as his mind is raised out of corporeal 
affections and sensual thoughts. 

But with the Lord it was different, for the Lord's glorification 
commenced in his interior, middle or rational part by the 
knowledge of truth from the Word. For " the rational princi- 
ple is that in which the human principle commences, and thus 
from which and by which the human principle is." (A. C. 3704 
— also 2194.) And his glorification ascended just in the de- 
gree that it descended ; that is, the Lord became intimately 
united to the divine essence, which is divine love, just in the 
degree that he became ultimately conformed to the truth of the 
good of that love. The Lord's external was united to Jehovah 
precisely as another man is united to him, namely by the 
knowledge and practice of truth. The only difference was that 
the Lord was united to Jehovah infinitely, but other men finite- 
ly : but this is a difference as to degree and not as to manner. 
The Lord, like other men, was born in ignorance, and acquired 
the knowledge of truth from infancy to adult age, in subjection 
to his ostensible earthly parents, and by instruction from the doc- 
tors of the Jewish church. His rational mind was first purified 
and formed by the understanding and will of this truth from the 
Word, and then his external man was also purified and formed 
by the practice of it, even to the fulfilling of its every jot and 
tittle. As his rational mind was thus rectified by the divine 
truth, and his external man conformed to it, his external man 
ascended to the divine essence ; that is, came into a state of form 
and activity homogenious with the divine love ; and in this degree 
the good of that love descended into, was manifested in, and 
appropriated to, his external man. Thus by truth, or the prac- 
tice of it, the Lord's external form was lifted up to and united 
with the divine essence ; and by the good of that truth the 
Lord's internal, or the divine essence, descended into and was 



EXFLAltfED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 237 

united with his external form. The ratio of descent was pre- 
cisely equal to that of the ascent : so that, just in the degree 
that he ascended, in the same degree he descended ; till, in ris- 
ing far above all heavens to the very Divinity, he also de- 
scended infinitely to the very limits of creation, so as " to fill 
all things." Hence, unlike all other men, he glorified his very 
body, and therefore had a more perfectly ultimate external man 
than they. 

On this subject, the new church holds the following doctrine : 
M It is scarcely known at this day what the external man is ; 
for it is generally supposed that the things appertaining to the 
body alone constitute the external man — as his sensual things, 
namely, the touch, the taste, the smell, the hearing, the seeing, 
and also appetites and pleasures ; but these constitute the outer- 
most man, which is merely corporeal. The external man 
properly so called, consists of and is constituted by scientifics 
appertaining to the memory, and by affections appertaining to 
the love in which man is principled ; and also by the sensual 
things proper to spirits, together with the pleasures which like- 
wise appertain to spirits. The body is only as a covering or 
incrustation, which is dissolved, in order that man may truly 
live and that all things appertaining to him may become more 
excellent." This is the case with man now since the fall : and 
hence, now, his body has to be laid aside, or his mind has to be 
raised above his body, in order that he may converse with 
spirits and angels. And his mind must be raised above the de- 
lights of the body, such as eating, drinking and the like, before 
he can be made capable of enjoying here spiritual or angelic 
delights. Hence it is a common observation, that men who 
are addicted to the gratification of mere sensual appetites, are 
remarkable for their mental obtuseness and their moral pravi- 
ties. It is well known, too, that no high attainments are made 
in purely intellectual pursuits without great self denial in 
respect to the bodily appetites. And the constant proneness of 
men to break through restraints on these appetites, and give 
way to, at least, occasional excessive indulgences, is manifest 
proof that man's corporeal principle is now irrevocably depraved. 



238 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER 

Before the fall, however, that is, in the most ancient or celes- 
tial church, man had his material body so fully correspondent 
with his spirit, that he could see angels, and converse with them, 
although he was existing on earth. At that time, indeed, he 
had no external respiration, and no external or audible speech. 
He respired with the atmosphere of heaven, not with the atmos- 
phere of this world ; and his speech was tacit, consisting in a 
sort of pantomimic action of the muscles of the mouth and face. 
Hence there were muscles of the mouth existing then, which 
are not developed in men at the present day, and the material 
bodies of men, were then so fully correspondent to their spirit- 
ual bodies, that they did not intercept at all the perceptions of 
the spiritual mind, but this mind looked intuitively through all 
natural objects to the corresponding spiritual things in heaven 
which cause them to exist on earth. Their material bodies 
being thus correspondent with their spiritual bodies, they 
were put off without any disorders, pains, or convulsions of dis- 
ease — probably by some kind of gradual exsiccation, and death 
was but a sweet sleep, from which the spirit woke into the spiri- 
tual plane, instead of the material plane, as before, and, without 
a struggle or a pang, left the body on earth a mere exuvium. 

But since the fall, the spirits of men have become gross and 
sensual, so as to be unable to feel out of the body, or think out 
of the senses. Hence they can now no longer converse with 
spirits or angels ; and to enjoy the delights of a purely spiri- 
tual state, they must not only have their bodies laid aside, but 
they must also have all their memory of natural things brought 
into entire quiescency. With the Lord, however, all is Jehovah, 
not only his internal and interior man, but also his external 
man, and his very body. Wherefore he is the only one who 
rose up into heaven with the body also, as plainly appears in 
the Evangelists, where they speak of his resurrection, and es- 
pecially from his own words in Luke, xxiv. 39, "Behold my 
hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for 
a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." 

That the Lord arose with his body into heaven, is confirmed 
by the vision of the martyred Stephen, who, in seeing the hea- 



EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 239 

vens opened, saw him standing on the right hand of the glory 
of God; and by the declaration of Paul, who says, (Eph. iv. 
10,) "He that descended is the same that ascended up far 
above all heavens, that he might fill all things ;" and again, 
(Heb. i. 3,) " When he had through himself purged our sins, 
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High ; being made 
so much better than the angels as he hath by inheritance ob- 
tained a more excellent name than they." Thus he ascended 
above the abodes of the angels ; and, as he himself expressly 
says, " went back to the father from whom he had come forth 
into the world" — " I came forth from the father, and am come 
into the world ; again, I leave the world and go to the father." 
Hence he ascended to the very divine essence, and, of course, 
above the heavens of angels, for he was begotten of Jehovah, 
so as to be the son of God, that is, the continuous proceeding 
from the divine essence ; and therefore, in having gone back to 
that essence, he is now sitting on the heavens as the throne of 
God, for ever swaying a sceptre of righteousness as the sceptre 
of his kingdom, and from the right hand of Jehovah commis- 
sioning the angels as the ministering agents of his salvation to 
men. Hence it is clear that the Lord's body arose, not only 
into, but above, the heavens ; and that it is not confined there, 
but fills all things, even the material universe, so that a light 
could shine from it on Paul even on this earth for his conver- 
sion. That the light of the Lord's presence, in Paul's conver- 
sion, did actually shine into this earth, so as to affect the matter 
of it, is proved by the fact that it scorched the cornea of Paul's 
material eyes, and made them for a time blind. Hence the body 
of the Lord pervades with its presence, and its consciousness, 
and a sphere of its quality, even the earths, so as to keep ex- 
pelled from matter, and hold chained for ever in hell, the infer- 
nal crew who were wont in olden times to possess the bodies of 
men. Thus it is that the Lord, by the presence of his divine 
humanity even in matter, redeems and saves man to eternity, 
by keeping the devils so far away from his body and its invo- 
luntary muscles, as that they can never destroy again his free 
will and rationality in spiritual things. 



240 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER 

Thus the Lord has an embodyment which spirits have not, 
because he has a body present and conscious throughout the 
natural world ; whereas spirits have only a body which is ex- 
tant and conscious in the spiritual world. Hence the Lord said 
to his disciples that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as they 
saw he had. Mark, he did not say, that a spirit has no flesh 
and bones ; but that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as he has, 
that is, such flesh and bones as his. Doubtless spirits have 
substantial flesh and bones, but they are spiritual, whereas the 
Lord's were divinely natural. 

Thus it is evident that the Lord had an external and an in- 
ternal. His internal was Jehovah, that is, I AM, or essential 
being, or divine love, which is the only thing that is, and the 
only fountain of all existence. And the Lord's external which 
he assumed upon earth, was just like that of another man, ex- 
cept that it was an enveloping of divine love in materiality : 
but, in process of time and state, this external was wholly put 
off, and an external fully correspondent to his divine internal 
was put on. The external that was put off, was not the infirm 
and corrupt humanity of any one particular man or nation, but 
the entire humanity which mankind in the whole complex, from 
the creation till the Lord's advent, had made their own. The 
external that was put on, is the humanity which the Lord, 
by his own proper power, acquired to himself from the im- 
pulses of the divine love within him : for, according to the hu- 
man economy, " the activity of man does not proceed from his 
soul by his body, but out of his body from his soul." (T. C. 
R. 188.) This was especially true of the Lord. Hence his 
external acted of itself from his internal. Therefore we say, 
the Lord acquired to himself a humanity from the divine love 
within him, by his own proper power. And our authority for 
saying so is the divine truth of our text, in which the Lord 
declares, " I lay down my life that I might take it again. No 
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have 
power to lay it down, and / have power to take it again" 

Now this putting off of the infirm humanity, was a state of 
gradual and progressive humiliation. Humiliation consists 



EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS, 241 

in the prostration and consequently entire subjection of one to 
another. Hence the Lord's humiliation was a prostration, or a 
bowing down, of his infirm external before his divine internal, 
until this internal, by the production from itself of an external 
fully corresponding to itself, so completely subdued that infirm 
external as at length to put it under its feet and shake it off like 
dust. 

But while that infirm external existed, it obscured and blunt- 
ed the influences of divine love and wisdom from the Lord's 
internal, so that those influences could not shine out and be 
active in ultimates in any thing of a degree at all adequate to 
their intrinsic infinite brilliancy and power. Hence, while the 
Lord was in his infirm external, the glory of his divine internal 
could not appear. But so far as, by his humiliation in it, he 
put that external off, and produced from within an external 
more correspondent to his divine internal, this internal shone 
forth and came out in its glory even in ultimates. This glory 
becoming the Lord's in his ultimate form, — because the Lord, 
as we have shown, acquired to himself a humanity by his own 
proper power, — he, therefore, was himself glorified in his ulti- 
mate form, just in the ratio of his humiliation in his infirm ex- 
ternal. The Lord's putting on an external corresponding to 
his divine internal, was, therefore, his state of gradual and pro- 
gressive GLORIFICATION. 

These two states of humiliation and glorification were 
alternate in the Lord, precisely as states of good and evil, or 
truth and falsity, are alternate in man when he is undergoing 
regeneration : for the glorification of the Lord is the type of 
man's regeneration. 

We may say, then, in the words of the new church, " That 
the Lord put off, by successive steps, the humanity from the 
mother, and put on a humanity from the divinity in himself, 
which is the Divine Humanity and the Son of God;" and, that 
thus " God became man in ultimates as he was before man in 
first principles." 

Such is the doctrine of the new church respecting the Lord's 
alternate states of humiliation and glorification. And in ap- 

22 



242 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER 

plying this doctrine to the explanation of the subject before us, 
namely, how the Lord, although one and equal with the father, 
should nevertheless sometimes speak as though he was inferior 
to him, we have only to take her own words in the following 
extract somewhat modified by our interlarded explanations. 

" To fall on the face was a ceremony of adoration in the 
most ancient church, and thence was adopted by the ancients? 
by reason that the face signified the interiors, and the state of 
their humiliation was represented by falling on the face : hence 
this became a usual ceremony in the Jewish representative 
church. True adoration, or humiliation of heart, is attended 
with prostration on the face to the earth before the Lord, as a 
gesture naturally flowing from it. For in humiliation of heart 
there is an acknowledgment, on man's part, that he is mere 
filthiness ; and at the same time an acknowledgment of the in- 
finite mercy of the Lord towards such a being. And when the 
mind is left in these acknowledgments, it lets itself down to- 
wards hell and prostrates the body. Nor does it elevate itself, 
but remains prostrate, until it is elevated by the Lord. This is 
the case in all true humiliation, accompanied with a perception 
of elevation by the Lord's mercy. Such was the humiliation 
of the members of the most ancient church. That the Lord 
adored, and prayed to, Jehovah his father, is known from the 
Word in the Evangelists ; and that he did this as to a being 
different from himself, although Jehovah was in him. But the 
state in which the Lord was at such times was his stat© of 
humiliation, when he was thinking and feeling in the infirm 
humanity derived from the mother. But so far as he put off 
that humanity, and put on a divine humanity, he was in a dif- 
ferent state, which is called his state of glorification. In the 
former state, he adored Jehovah as a person different from him- 
self, although, in reality, Jehovah was in himself; for his inter- 
nal was Jehovah : but in the latter, namely, the state of glori- 
fication, he discoursed with Jehovah as with himself; for he 
was Jehovah himself. But how these things are cannot be 
conceived, unless it be known what the internal is, and how 
the internal acts on the external; and, further, how the internal 



EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 243 

and external are distinct from each other, and yet are joined 
together in one. This, however, may be illustrated by the in- 
ternal appertaining to man, and its influx into, and operation 
upon, his external. The internal of man is that principle by 
virtue of which man is man, and by which he is distinguished 
from brute animals. By this internal he lives after death and 
to eternity ; and by this he is capable of being elevated by the 
Lord amongst angels :" it is the very first or most intimate 
seminal form by virtue of which he becomes, and is, a man. 
By this internal the Lord is united to man. The heaven 
nearest to the Lord consists of these human internals : this 
heaven, however, is above the inmost angelic heaven. Where- 
fore these internals are the habitations of the Lord himself. 
The whole human race is thus most intimately present under 
the eyes of the Lord. " In the sublunary world there appears 
distance ; but there is none in heaven, much less above hea- 
ven. In heaven apparent contiguity in space, is nothing else 
but similarity of state, so that those who are in similar states 
are together, and those who are in dissimilar states are asunder. 
The case is the same with the spirits of men." Hence, as the 
internals of all men are in a similar state, because these are 
the Lord's presence with all men alike, in his own love and 
mercy, giving them the universal and essential principles of 
their existence, therefore the internals of all men are essentially 
alike, having a common likeness to the Lord ; and consequently 
there is no separation or contiguity of space in respect to them ; 
and therefore all are immediately in the inspection of the 
omniscient and omnipresent God. 

But these internals of men are not God himself, though they 
are the direct effects of his most proximate presence. Hence 
they have not life in themselves, but are forms recipient of the 
life of the Lord. In proportion, then, as man is in evil, whether 
actual or hereditary, he is, as it were, separate from his own in- 
ternal, which belongs to the Lord, and which is the Lord with 
him ; consequently he, in the same proportion, is separate from the 
Lord himself: for although this internal be adjoined to man, and 



244 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER 

inseparable from him, still, as man recedes from the Lord, that 
is, comes into a state dissimilar to his, in the same proportion 
he, as it were, separates himself from his own internal. This 
separation, however, is not an evulsion, or plucking asunder 
from it ; for man would then be a beast, and no longer capable 
of living after death ; but it consists in a dissent and disagree- 
ment of those faculties of man which are beneath it, or external 
to it ; that is, it consists in his rational and natural part coming 
into a state of contrariety to it. In proportion to this dissent 
and disagreement, or contrariety of state, there is a spiritual 
disjunction of man's external from his internal ; but in propor- 
tion as there is no dissent and disagreement, or no contrariety 
of state, man's external is joined to his internal, and by his in- 
ternal is conjoined with the Lord. This conjunction is effected 
in proportion as man is principled in love and charity ; for love 
and charity are what conjoin. 

Such is the case in respect to man. But in respect to the 
Lord, his internal was Jehovah himself, inasmuch as he was 
conceived of Jehovah himself, through the overshadowing of a 
virgin by the holy ghost : and Jehovah cannot be divided and 
become another's, as the soul or internal of man can, in the 
case of a son who is conceived of a human father : for what 
is divine is not capable of division or propagation, like what is 
human, but is one and the same, and is permanent. Hence the 
Lord's internal could not be distinct from the father or Jehovah, 
as man's internal is, and much less separate from Jehovah, 
inasmuch as Jehovah, in conceiving the Lord, could not be 
distinct and separate from himself, but became himself, in all 
his fullness, the Lord's soul. Whereas, in creating a mere 
man, Jehovah conceives him through his human father as a 
medium. Hence a mere man has a human soul, which is a 
recipient form of the divine life, existing discretely from it ; but 
the Lord, having had no human father, could have, of course, 
no human soul, and therefore had not an internal discrete from 
the divine life, but an internal continuous with it. Thus he 
had no other soul but Jehovah himself. Jehovah alone, and in 



EXPLAINED BY NEW-GHURCH VIEWS. 245 

all his fullness, therefore, was the Lord's internal ; so that Paul 
could say, " in Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the god- 
head bodily." 

With this internal the Lord united his external as a corre- 
sponding form with its essence ; so that his external form, or 
human essence, became altogether one in quality and degree 
with his internal divine essence. Thus as the internal of the 
Lord was Jehovah, it could not be a form recipient of life, 
as the internal of man is, but was life itself. And his human 
essence, by union with his divine essence, was also made life 
itself. Wherefore the Lord said, " As the father hath life in 
himself, so hath he given to the son, to have life in himself." 
(John, v. 26.) 

Thus man has an internal and an external ; and when man 
is in a mere, which is an evil, external state, he appears dis- 
joined from his own internal. And as there was a perfect 
parity between the Lord and man in this respect, therefore, in 
proportion as the Lord was in the humanity which he received 
hereditarily from the mother, and which was infirm, finite, false 
and evil, he was in states of contrariety to his own divine in- 
ternal or Jehovah, so as to appear distinct from him ; and in 
these states adored Jehovah as a being different from himself : 
but in proportion as he put off this humanity, the Lord came 
into states which were not contrary to his divine internal ; and 
as his external states became fully correspondent to his internal, 
he no longer appeared distinct from Jehovah, but appeared as 
he really was, one with him, and spake with him as with him- 
self. (A. C. 1999.) The former state, as remarked above, was 
the Lord's state of humiliation, which was temporary and 
passed away ; but the latter was his state of glorification, 
which is eternal. Consequently, though the Lord did, at certain 
times, speak as though he was inferior to the father, yet, 
nevertheless, he in reality was, is now, and ever will be, equal 
with him ; as Paul says, " the same yesterday, and to-day, and 
for ever" — the one " God, over all, blessed for evermore." 

Thus the whole new-church view of our subject is distinctly 
before us. What has the Unitarian to object ? Why he will 

22 * 



246 ROOT OF THE UNITARIAN DIFFICULTY 

say, What evidence have we that man has such an internal as 
you speak of? Who sees, who knows any thing about such 
an internal in himself? And if a man be not conscious of an 
internal in himself, how can one be there ? What illustration, 
then, does the example of such an internal give of the Lord's 
internal which you say was Jehovah ? And as for your hu- 
miliation of a divine external before a divine internal, I know 
nothing of it. I can only conceive of Deity as an all extended 
essence, or divine mind — as an infinite, eternal, omnipotent, 
omniscient, omnipresent, and therefore limitless, indeterminate 
and formless unity — a mere 'principle of benevolence, wisdom 
and beneficence. And to my mind it is not only absurd, but 
impiously and most criminally profane, to attempt to think of 
such a being in a form or under an idea comprehensible to a 
finite mind. It is therefore to me the height of impiety, as 
well as absurdity, to speak of an external to Deity, or of God 
being a man; and your talk of God's putting off one external 
and putting on another external is to me nothing else than 
theological gibberish. 

Such, or something like it, I should imagine would be the 
answer of a Unitarian to the explanations of our church now 
given. The root of the difficulty, then, seems to be the sensual 
man's inability to discern spiritual things ; and this root has 
two main radicals : first, the sensual man's inability to conceive 
that there is any internal man, and therefore how there could 
have been a divine internal in the Lord ; and second, his ina- 
bility to conceive how a divine internal could have a divine ex- 
ternal, or a divine essence have a divine form. 

The first of these difficulties it is impossible to remove, be- 
cause it is inherent in the very nature of the sensual mind. For 
the sensual mind is formed by the appearances of truth, that is, 
truth as it appears to the senses; and the existence of an in- 
ternal man is contrary to appearance. Most men do not know, 
and if they be told it, do not believe, that there is an internal 
man ; because they live in corporeal and sensual principles* 
which cannot possibly see what is of an interior nature. " In- 
terior things are capable of seeing what is exterior, but exterior 



IN CONCEIVING JESUS AND THE FATHER ONE. 247 

things are not capable of seeing what is interior ; as in the case 
of vision, the internal sight can see what the external sight 
does, but the external sight cannot see at all what the internal 
sight does : or, what is similar, the intellectual and rational 
principles can perceive the nature and quality of the scientific, 
but the scientific principle cannot perceive the nature and quali- 
ty of the intellectual and rational. A further reason why men 
do not know, and if they be told it, do not believe, that there is 
an internal man, is, because they do not actually believe that 
there is a spirit which is separated from the body at death, and 
scarcely that there is an internal life which is called the soul : 
for when the sensual and corporeal man thinks of separating 
the spirit from the body, it occurs to him as an impossibility, 
by reason of his making all life to reside in the body ; in which 
idea he confirms himself by several considerations drawn from 
mere appearances in this world." " But the chief cause why 
the greatest part of mankind, and the most learned more than 
the simple, are influenced by incredulity respecting an internal 
man, or respecting a spiritual world, and spiritual things in 
general, is, because almost all men are immersed in self-love 
and the love of the world, which are diametrically opposite to 
celestial love ; that is, love to the Lord, and spiritual love, 
which is love to the neighbour." (A.C. 1594.) For love to the 
Lord and the neighbour is spiritual, while love of self and the 
world, is natural, sensual and corporeal. And while a man is 
in the latter, he cannot conceive of the existence of the former. 
A single fact proves this, namely, the fact that there is among 
sensual men so much disputing whether there be any such thing 
as disinterested benevolence. If a man were spiritual, he could 
have no doubt or dispute on this subject ; but the man who is 
principled in self-love, cannot conceive of any principle of ac- 
tion but an ultimate regard to one's own interest ; and therefore, 
in his view, there can be no benevolence which is disinterested. 
It is impossible to conceive of any purely disinterested action, 
until a man is raised out of self-love into the love of the Lord. 
For a man can never know what he has never seen or has 
never been. And no one can be purely disinterested but the 



248 ROOT OF THE UNITARIAN DIFFICULTY 

Lord and he who is made like him by regeneration. And " no 
one knoweth the things of God, but the spirit of God, and he 
unto whom God reveals them by his spirit." (1 Cor. ii.) There- 
fore a selfish man cannot know or conceive of a disinterested 
action. In like manner every thing spiritual is hid from his 
eyes ; because " the natural man receiveth not the things of 
the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can 
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Now 
the internal of man, of which we have been speaking, is most 
intimately spiritual, and is in fact nothing else but love ; for, 
as has been shown, man is not bodily form merely, but love 
and wisdom in a bodily form ; therefore the essential man is 
the love. Consequently, the true and genuine man is the love 
of God in us, which is mutual love. Wherefore mutual love is 
emphatically the internal man. But self-love is opposite to 
mutual love ; hence it is that they who are principled in self- 
love cannot conceive of the internal man. 

" The spirit of man, or the soul, is the interior man, which 
lives after death, and is an organized spiritual substance, being 
within the body during a man's abode in this world. This in- 
terior man, or man's soul, or spirit, is not the internal man, 
but the internal man is in it, when mutual love is there. The 
things appertaining to the internal man are, as we have shown, 
of the Lord in man, so that it may be said that the internal man 
is the Lord; but as the Lord grants unto angels and men, whilst 
they live in mutual love, to have a celestial selfhood, so that it 
appears to them as if they did good of or from themselves; 
hence we speak of the internal man, as if it were a part of man 
himself. But any one who is principled in mutual love acknow- 
ledges and believes that all goodness and truth are not his, but 
the Lord's, and that the ability to love another as himself, and 
especially like the angels, to love another more than himself, is 
the continual gift of the Lord ; from which gift and its happi- 
ness, man recedes in the proportion that he recedes from the 
acknowledgment that that gift is the Lord's, (A. C. 1594,) and 
comes into the appearance that his good and his truth are his 
own; that is, recedes from an internal and comes into an ex- 



IN CONCEIVING JESUS AND THE FATHER ONE. 249 

ternal state, which is the same as receding from love to God 
and coming into self love. Thus it is that they who are cor- 
poreal and sensual, as all are who are principled in self love, 
cannot conceive of an internal man that is the Lord, and hence 
cannot conceive how the Lord could have had an internal man 
which is Jehovah. As the great mass of men in the present 
day are so principled, it is consequently difficult, nay impossi- 
ble, for us to convince them by argument of this point of our 
doctrine. Still it is nevertheless true, although there is no way 
of making them see its truth, until they cease to be sensual and 
become spiritually rational men. And " whether men will hear, 
or whether they will forbear," the doctrines of truth must be 
preached. 

We see, then, that the sensual mind's inability to conceive 
that there is any internal man, is an obstacle in the way of re- 
ceiving the doctrine which teaches a personal unity of Jesus 
Christ and the Essential Divinity within him. And this is an 
obstacle which cannot be removed by mere argument. The 
natural man may give a mere intellectual assent to the truth 
that Jesus and Jehovah are one ; but this truth never can find 
in him that vital reception which alone constitutes the church 
in spirit. This truth being, as we have fully shown, eminently 
spiritual in its character, it cannot be truly seen, or effectively 
received, until men, by the life of the doctrines which teach 
and enforce it, come into the degree of spiritual discernment 
requisite for its perception. All attempts, therefore, to propa- 
gate this truth by argument will be vain. Before spiritual life is 
formed by the doctrine of spiritual truth, there is always some 
latent natural passion, which, often unconsciously to the man 
himself, so obscures his mental vision, as to prevent his seeing 
such truth, however clear the light in which it may be pre- 
sented; and causes him to negate it spontaneously, on account 
of its opposition to the ends of natural life. And we may rea- 
son till doomsday with men who are in the negation of spirit- 
ual truth, without ever advancing them one step towards its 
rational perception or its vital admission. Hence, Unitarians, 
to receive our doctrine of the Lord, must cease to be such ; for 



250 ROOT OF THE UNITARIAN DIFFICULTY. 

I hold all distinctive Unitarians to be nothing else than natural 
moral men, who are in the negation of spiritual truth. 

The difficulty before us, therefore, is not to be removed by 
argument, but by change of internal state, effected, in the Di- 
vine Providence, through the affliction of natural loves conspir- 
ing with remains of good and truth stored up in infancy. 

Still rational argument is of use in illustrating the willing or 
affirmative mind, preparatory to the vital reception of true doc- 
trine; arid it is more than all of use in confirming the rational 
mind after the doctrine of truth has begun to be vitally received. 

Although, then, we cannot hope to convince confirmed Uni- 
tarians, or negators, by rational arguments for our doctrine of 
the Lord against their views, yet we may thereby defend our- 
selves from doubts respecting the truth of our own views, which 
opposing spheres may infuse into us during our daily business 
or social intercourse with mankind around us ; and we may 
confirm ourselves in the rational and vital reception of this 
most essential principle of our faith by seeing it more distinctly 
in vivid contrast with its opposite. 

Therefore, as it would detain you too long now, we shall, on 
another occasion, consider the other radical branch of the uni- 
tarian difficulty in conceiving of the sole and supreme divinity 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 



SERMON XV. 

ISAIAH, L1X. 16. 
" Therefore his own arm brought salvation unto him.'* 

In the Gospel according to John, there occur the following 
passages : " I and my father are one" (x. 30.)— " Therefore 
the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not only 
broken the sabbath, but said also, that God was his father, 
malting himself equal with God" (v. 18.) — " If ye loved me, 
ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the father : for my 
father is greater than I" (xiv. 28.) — " The son can do 
nothing of himself but what he seeth the father do" (v. 19.) — 
44 1 speak not of myself ; but the father that dwelleth in me, he 
doeth the works." (xiv. 10.) 

These passages bring fully into view the subject which we 
have been discussing. They show an apparent contradiction 
between the Lord's words, where he asserts his unity and 
equality with the father, and where he also asserts his in- 
feriority to him. We of the new church explain this apparent 
contradiction by saying, that when the Lord speaks of himself 
as inferior to the father, he does so in respect to that infirm 
humanity which he assumed from the mother and which he 
subsequently put off; but when he speaks of himself as one and 
equal with the father, he does so in respect to that glorified hu- 
manity which he produced from the divine essence. Hence 
we say, that when he speaks of himself as inferior to the father, 
he speaks only apparent truth, because he speaks in an exter- 
nal natural state, in which things are seen only according to 
appearance ; but when he says he is equal with the father, he 



252 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITATIAN AND 

speaks the real truth, because he speaks in an internal or di- 
vinely spiritual state, in which things are seen as they really 
are. But, on the other hand, they of the unitarian church say, 
that Christ speaks the real truth when he says he is inferior to 
the father ; and that he speaks figuratively, when he says he 
and the father are one. It may be seen, then, that the difference 
between us and the Unitarians is as wide as the poles. And 
this difference runs as it were in parallel lines between our ideas 
of God, of manhood, and of every thing which might be brought 
to elucidate the true relation of the Lord to the father, or to re- 
move the natural difficulties which are inherent in the appre- 
hension of the Lord's absolute unity with him. 

The true reason why there is so wide a difference between us 
and the Unitarians in our views of the Lord, is, because the 
unitarian doctrine of the Lord is drawn from the natural world, 
and ours from the spiritual world. Unitarian doctrines are 
drawn from the mere letter of the Word, explained by mere 
natural science; but the doctrines of the new church are drawn 
from the letter of the Word as it is understood by angels, and 
are confirmed by the letter illustrated by the light of its spiritual 
sense. The doctrines of the Unitarians are drawn from the 
Word by men in the exercise of the ordinary natural-rational 
powers of the mind ; but the new-church doctrines were drawn 
from the Word by one in the exercise of peculiar spiritual- 
rational powers, because his spiritual eyes were opened to see 
and converse with angels, and to see and reveal the facts and 
laws of the spiritual world ; and because he was otherwise 
especially filled with the Lord's spirit to teach those doctrines 
from him. Hence, as unitarian doctrines come from a man's 
own natural intelligence formed from the knowledge of truths 
as seen here in this world, therefore the Unitarian stands on 
the earth and looks at the Lord from without ; but as the doc- 
trines of the new church come from the Lord himself through 
heaven, and come from a spiritual intelligence not man's own, 
but formed from the knowledge of truths as seen in the spirit- 
ual world, such Newchurchmen as fully embrace those doc- 
trines and adequately understand them, stand as it were in hea- 



NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 253 

ven and look to the Lord from within. Consequently, these two 
views of the Lord will be as variant as the natural man and the 
spiritual man : and these, as is well known, are antagonists. 
Hence the Unitarian must, from the very nature of his mind, 
experience insuperable difficulties in comprehending or receiv- 
ing any explanations which the new church may have to give 
of the Lord's apparent contradiction of himself when he at one 
time says he is equal with the father and at another says he is 
inferior to him. Thus when, in explanation of this subject, she 
teaches the doctrine of an internal, which is the Lord's abode 
with every man, giving him the universal and essential princi- 
ples of his being, — hereby distinguishing him from the brutes 
and consociating him with angels, — and that this internal in the 
Lord was Jehovah himself; the Unitarian objects that we have 
no evidence of the existence of such an internal in ourselves, 
and therefore the supposition of its existence does not explain 
how Jehovah could have been Christ's internal. Again, when 
the new church teaches that Jehovah himself clothed himself 
in material humanity by conception and birth in the womb of 
of a virgin — that the Lord Jesus Christ so existing from Jeho- 
vah, put off, by his own proper power, this material humanity, 
and put on another which was an external divine form perfectly 
correspondent to Jehovah as an internal divine essence — that 
while the Lord was thinking and feeling in his material hu- 
manity, he was in a state of contrariety to his internal which 
was Jehovah, and, as contrariety of state produces apparent 
separation in space, therefore appeared distinct from him ; so 
that, in that humanity, he prayed to Jehovah, his father, as a 
separate being, and spoke of himself as inferior to him — but 
that the Lord, as he expelled his material humanity, and put on 
a divine humanity by production from his divine essence, so as 
to come into a state of perfect correspondence with Jehovah, 
and therefore to do away the appearance of separation from 
him, then spake to him as to himself and said, that he and the 
father were one; the Unitarian objects to all this that he 
cannot conceive of God as having, or coming into, an 
external form — he cannot conceive of a divine essence as 

23 



251 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITARIAN AND 

having a divine form, which is man — he cannot conceive 
how God can be man, or man God — he cannot conceive 
of the Infinite, or the Eternal, or the Omnipresent, or the 
Omniscient, or the Omnipotent Divine Mind, as being limited or 
finited in human shape : and he not only cannot conceive such 
a thing, but he is shocked at the thought of any such concep- 
tion as the most heinous profanity. He thinks of the Deity 
as a spirit — the idea of which in his mind is as air or ether. 
He regards God as an abstract divine essence without any form 
— as a mere principle of goodness, and wisdom, and power, 
without any distinct or conceivable divine embody ment what- 
ever. And he so fortifies himself in these objections by natural 
and sensual appearances, both in the world and the letter of 
the Word, that it is impossible to dislodge him from these his 
strong holds while he remains a natural or a sensual man. 

The Unitarian and the Newjerusalemite, therefore, so far 
from being the same, are the most entire antipodes. And, what 
is more, the natural and sensual principle is so strong in all 
of us, and, the natural-rational arguments drawn from natural 
and sensual appearances are so cogent, and so subtilely insinuate 
themselves into our external man, that the acute and learned 
Unitarian, especially if he be also a good natural man, has 
great power, so far as we come into his sphere, of infesting 
our spiritual mind, by secretly infusing doubts, which disturb 
and unsettle our clear rational convictions of spiritual truth. 
Hence it is needful, that such of us as mingle much in promis- 
cuous society, should be armed at all points, and especially have 
our rational mind fortified against these subtile influences. 

Doubtless the best protection against this and all spiritual 
dangers, is the sphere of a good life ; but good, mere good, is 
powerless without truth ; and a good life is protective only be- 
cause it is a flame which sheds a rational light for its own pro- 
tection, and of course for the protection of any who are 
principled in it. This rational light is the form itself of good, 
and is the truth of good, which, as a covering of common sense 
and intuitive spiritual perception, serves good as a coat of mail, 
and a whole panoply of defence against the fiery darts of its 

\ 



NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 255 

enemies. But few men in the present day are in this good, into 
which no one can come without reformation and regeneration. 
While men are not in good, there is no way of protecting them 
from the inevitable conquest of evil by its false principles, unless 
truth is first received as mere science. Truth thus received 
into an understanding made dispassionate by the quiescency of 
evil loves, may be instrumental in eradicating evil and implanting 
good. And as good is implanted by truth, and grows, it again 
forms truth around itself for its defence and further propagation. 
Thus good has no power either to exist or subsist without truth. 
We must therefore have truth united with our good, or the life 
of our good will have no power to protect us. Hence it is so 
often the case that persons in simple good, not only endanger 
themselves, but jeopardize whole communities by their well 
meant but indiscreet acts. In short, truth is the sword of good, 
by which it protects itself from the assaults of falses that would 
unsettle and destroy it. And the doctrine of truth is the sc) thed 
chariot which carries good to the conflict, and mows down the 
serried ranks of its enemies, while truth, as a falchion in the 
hand of man as good, waves and glitters in the light of heaven 
above. 

The doctrine of truth for the new church is represented as 
a man-child, born of the woman in the wilderness, which is to 
rule the nations, and break them in pieces, as a potter's vessel, 
with a rod of iron. This rod of iron in the hand of a man- 
child denotes the doctrine of spiritual truth made potent against 
evils and falses by the aids of illustration from natural science. 
We must therefore defend ourselves from unitarian doubts, and 
strengthen ourselves against all the evils to which our natural 
minds are prone, by such aids. And hence we must be so fur- 
nished as to be able to give to the spiritual truths of our church 
the equipment of every requisite, or appropriate, natural-rational 
illustration. We must, as the apostle says, be able to give a 
reason for the hope that is in us. For although it is not admis- 
sible to enter into the faith of spiritual things by reasonings 
from natural things, yet when spiritual things are admitted on 
a ground of faith and obedience, then it is admissible to confirm 



256 SECOND GROUND OF DIFFICULTY IN RECEIVING 

those things by rational arguments drawn from the natural 
world. Hence we have been engaged in illustrating our doc- 
trine of the Lord, which is fundamental to all our theology and 
to all our religion ; and in maintaining it, in our own minds, 
against unitarian objections, by rational illustrations drawn 
from natural science. 

In our last discourse, we resolved the whole root of the dif- 
ficulty, which the Unitarian encounters in admitting or receiving 
our explanations of the subject before us, into two main radi- 
cals ; namely, the sensual man's inability to conceive of the 
internal man as we do, and therefore to conceive how there 
could have been a divine internal in the Lord ; and his inability 
to conceive how a divine internal could have a divine external, 
or a divine essence have a divine form. 

The first of these radicals we discussed then, and reserved the 
second for this occasion. Let us now, then, in the last place, 
scrutinize this second ground of difficulty, namely, the sensual 
man's inability to conceive of a divine essence in a divine form. 
This latter difficulty is more accessible to natural reason than 
the former ; for although, like the other, it is a mere fallacy of 
sense, still it is a fallacy which can be more readily shown to 
be such. It arises out of a false idea of God, which the testi- 
mony of his own works will correct; since " the invisible 
things of the Creator, even his eternal power and godhead, are 
clearly seen from the creation, being understood from the things 
that are made." 

This false idea of God is, that he is a simple oneness of being. 
On the contrary, the true idea of God is, that he is a trine of 
divine principles in one divine person. Now it can be demon- 
strated, and I flatter myself it has been already fully demon- 
strated heretofore, that in the things which God has made, or 
in the world of nature, there is no such thing as a simple one- 
ness of being, that is, a mere abstract principle of goodness, or 
power, or of any sort : but every principle inheres necessarily 
in some subject, as an essence for instance in its form. There- 
fore, " looking through nature up to nature's God," we con- 
clude that all divine principles must necessarily inhere in some 



NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 257 

appropriate divine subject. And the subject in which all the 
divine principles dwell bodily, is what we hold to be the person 
of God. 

The ground of unitarian error in conceiving of God, lies in 
an undue exercise of a peculiar property of the human mind 
called abstraction. The human mind can abstract colour from 
cloth, the countenance from the bony and fleshy visage, intel- 
ligence from the eye, affection from the thought, and the whole 
mind of man from its spiritual or material embodyment; but in 
fact these things do not and cannot exist abstractly. The hu- 
man mind has the power of abstracting in thought the attributes 
and qualities of things from the things in which they inhere ; 
but in nature, or in fact, no such abstraction exists. Thus the 
human mind can in thought abstract length and breadth from a 
superficies, or length, and breadth, and depth, from a cube ; 
but in fact length, or breadth, or depth, no where exists ab- 
stractly from the matter in which it inheres. So, universally, 
there is no such thing as an abstract principle. Such a prin- 
ciple is a mere thought, idea or notion of the mind in its appre- 
hension of the attributes and qualities of natural things. For 
instance, there is no such thing as an essence abstracted from 
its form, or a cause abstracted from its effect, or an end ab- 
stracted from its cause, or a mind abstracted from a natural 
or spiritual body: yet the human mind can give an ideal exist- 
ence to its own abstractions, and its imaginative faculty con- 
sists in this. Hence the mind can conceive of essence abstractly 
from form, or cause from effect, or end from cause, or mind 
from body. And hence it is, that it can conceive of an abstract 
divine mind ; can conceive of a divine essence abstractly from 
a divine form, though in the nature of things no such abstrac- 
tion ever did or can exist. For no such thing ever did or can 
exist as divine goodness out of divine wisdom ; or such a thing 
as either or both of these out of some divine or operative agent. 
To suppose this, is to suppose that divine ends could come into 
effect without divine means. Hence all things were made by 
the word, and without the word was not any thing made that 
was made. The word is the universal agent of God, which is 
23* 



258 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITARIAN AND 

with God in the beginning of every created work, and thinks it 
not robbery to be equal with God. God is the divine essence, 
the word is the divine form. Hence any thing is made, not by 
the divine essence abstractly, but by the divine essence in the 
divine form ; that is, by the divine form from the divine essence, 
or by the word from God. Now Jesus Christ is the word of 
God, that is, the son of God, the form of God, the wisdom of 
God, the power of God, the express image of his substance, 
" by whom," as the apostle Paul expressly says further, " he 
made the worlds." Therefore, the divine essence no where 
exists out of the divine form ; consequently, the divine essence, 
or God, exists in Jesus Christ and no where out of him. And 
the unitarian conception, that God the father exists, as a simple 
principle of unity, out of Jesus Christ, is a mere exercise of the 
human mind's power of abstracting in thought an essence from 
a form, which no where exists so abstracted in nature or in 
fact. And I hesitate not to say, that all the theological errors 
of the christian world — pregnant as that world now is with 
errors — may be traced to this power of abstraction in the hu- 
man mind. Or, what is the same thing, these errors originate 
in sensual appearances. For the abstractions of the human 
mind are such appearances realized in the mind's imaginative 
faculty. For it appears to human sense as if God did indeed 
exist no where in form, although, in real truth, every form that 
exists is full of him, or rather derives its form from the influx 
of his form. This arises out of that law of the divine economy 
which grants unto any and every subject of life, the appearance 
of living in itself, instead of the appearance of living from the 
divine essence which is discretely within it. This appearance 
is necessary to the distinctive or appropriate life of any created 
thing ; and without it there would be nothing but God ; for 
God could not appear manifestly in every thing, unless every 
thing existed continuously from him; and such continuous ex- 
istence would be absolutely himself. But when things exist 
discretely from him, as the body does from the soul, or the 
speech from the thought, or the tone from the affection, and 
when he gives to each thing the appearance of living or exist- 



NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 250 

ing in itself, as the body appears to live in itself, or the speech 
or tone to exist of itself, then every thing can have a proprium, 
or a life seemingly its own, which gives to it an existence that 
is distinctive from the divine existence ; for then God does not 
manifestly appear in any thing, although that thing has no life 
but from him, just as the body has no life but from the soul, 
and the speech no existence but from the thought, or the tone 
no existence but from the affection. Thus, although every 
thing that exists appears to have a distinct and independent 
existence of its own, still it is the dictate of sound human rea- 
son, that God does exist every where, and that nothing can 
exist without him. And yet, as God exists no where in ap- 
pearance, when human reason rests in appearances, it imagines 
that God is an all extended invisible and formless essence, a 
mere spirit or abstract mind, " without body, parts or passions." 
Hence this idea of God originates in the mere appearances of 
natural things ; and is therefore a sensual or natural idea. 
And that this is but a natural idea of God, is evident from the 
savages of our forests conceiving him to be a great invisible 
spirit. 

But it does not follow that God has no form, because his 
form does not appear to us in our natural state : and although 
he does not appear in common natural, and in ordinary 
human, forms, yet he must exist in an appropriate divine 
form; because, in the nature of things, no essence whatever 
can exist without a form ; and therefore because a divine 
essence without a divine form would be a divine nonentity. He 
may have a divine body as invisible to our natural eyes as the 
glorified body of the Lord was invisible to the natural eyes of 
his disciples when he existed in a material body on earth, but 
as visible to our spiritual eyes as was his divine natural body 
to the spiritual eyes of his disciples in his transfiguration on 
the mount. 

Hence the notion that God as a divine essence exists without 
a divine form is a fallacy of human sense. And as the Word 
of God expressly declares that God made man in his own image 
and likeness, therefore the form of God is man — that is, a di- 



260 RATIONAL EXEMPLIFICATION" OF THE 

vine man is the appropriate form of the divine essence. And 
as Paul expressly says the fullness of the godhead dwells in 
Jesus Christ bodily, therefore we may conclude that the 
unitarian notion of God, as a divine mind out of, or abstract 
from, the divine man Jesus Christ, is grounded in a mere fal- 
lacy of human sense, and is itself utterly fallacious. 

But the points which we have thus brought distinctly to view 
in the light of the new church, are susceptible of some exem- 
plification by the principles of philosophy and natural science; 
and it is the especial purpose of this discourse to make such an 
exemplification. 

Recollect that there is but one point which we wish to be now 
kept distinctly before the view, namely, that the divine essence 
must have a divine form to effect either creation, or redemption 
and salvation. To show this we need advert to but two philoso- 
phical principles. The first principle to which we shall advert, is 
expressed in these words of the new church : " Every active 
principle has its reactive or reciprocal principle ihat any effect 
may be produced ; and the active principle is the cause, and 
the reactive is the thing caused : therefore reactivity is also of 
the active principle, as the thing caused is of the cause, for all 
energy in the thing caused is from the cause. This is the case 
with reaction, in singular the things of universal nature." (A. 
C. 6262.) The other philosophical principle is, that the form 
determines the quality of the influent life. Thus the form of 
the plant determines the quality of life flowing in from the sun. 
The form of a peach tree determines the influences of the surf 
to the production of a peach, the form of an apple tree to an 
apple, of a plum tree to a plum, and so on. Just so the form 
of man determines the quality of life flowing in from the Lord, 
who is the Sun of Righteousness in heaven. Hence the be- 
nevolent man determines the Lord's influences to benevolence, 
the avaricious man to avarice. The selfish man determines 
the influx of divine love into self love, the worldling into love 
of the world. This principle is the groundwork of the law 
that life appears to be in the subject of it. Thus that life ap- 
pears to be in the tree, and not in the sun ; or in man and not 



NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 281 

in God. And it is the groundwork of that other law to which 
we adverted in our last discourse, namely, that " the activity 
of man does not proceed from his soul by his body, but out of 
his body from his soul." (T. C. R. 188.) For the soul acts 
upon the body, as the sun's rays act upon the plant, that is, 
discretely. Hence the body determines the influences of the 
soul, as the plant determines the influences of the sun. Hence 
idiocy or insanity of the mind results from malformation or 
lesion of the brain ; and hence the necessity of a sound body to 
the adequate manifestations of a sound mind. 

These two principles we take to be ultimate facts, which are 
ascertained by observation of things as they exist. Why God 
has made things so, it is not our province to determine, nor is it 
in our ability to see. The counsels of the Almighty are past 
knowing, and his ways past finding out. All we have to do, is 
to take these facts, and reason from them to the nature of Him 
who has so constituted things, on the principle that the Deity is 
subject to his own law, " by their fruits ye shall know them." 

Assuming, then, that nature is an image of its Creator ; and 
that every essential principle of nature must have a correspond- 
ing principle in God, therefore we reason, that as in nature 
every active has a reactive, in order that any effect may be pro- 
duced, consequently the divine essence must have something 
that is divinely reactive to it, in order that it may produce any 
effect. The effects of the divine essence are in general creation, 
preservation, redemption and salvation. Neither of these effects, 
therefore, could be produced if there were not something to re- 
act on the divine essence. 

But what is the divine essence? The apostle John says, 
" God is love" And love is evidently the essence of all things. 
All things of a man proceed from and body forth his love. If a 
man's love is self, self will be perceived to be the centre of his 
thoughts, and will be seen to be in all his actions. If his love 
be the world, every thing in him will regard and tend to the 
world. .If his love be ambition, or avarice, or any other spe- 
cific forai of love of self and love of the world, not only his 
acts and his thoughts, but the visage of his face, the tone of his 



\ 



262 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM 

voice, the habitual contraction of all his muscles, and the very 
clothes on his back, will have the lineaments or wear the sem- 
blance of ambition or avarice. Ambition or avarice will ooze 
through every pore, and form a complete sphere of itself around 
the man, so that every one who comes near him can feel or 
perceive its quality, just as one perceives the quality of a flower 
in the smell of its odour. So of any other love, whether it be 
love of God, or love of man, in some one or other of its specific 
forms of love of goodness or love of truth. This love will be 
found to be the essence of every thought, deed, physical con- 
formation and spherical influence of the man who is principled in 
it. Therefore love is the essence of the man. And hence divine 
love is the essence of God. 

Love too is manifestly the active principle in man. Who 
does not see that love of self, or love of the world, is the main- 
spring of action in those who are under its predominating in- 
fluence. The ruling love is the end which a man proposes to 
himself. For what he loves, this he calls good, and this he 
constantly seeks to attain. It reigns universally in his thought, 
and is always clasped in his affection. Awake, it enters into 
all his plans ; and asleep, he dreams of it. The man who loves 
money, for instance, is constantly projecting ways and means 
of getting and keeping it ; and all his action is but the ultimate 
form of his cogitations. Therefore the love of money, in his 
case, is the active principle. Who does not know that the love 
of a man for a woman, when strong and engrossing, fills every 
thought, gives form to every affection, and completely stimu- 
lates every action. What is it that a man will not do for the 
woman whom he truly and ardently loves. He will fight for 
her — he will die for her — he will compass sea and land to gain 
her : nay, he will totally change his character, that he may 
win her favour, or secure her acceptance of him. No one can 
fail to see and feel that love in his case prompts incessantly to 
action. Love is, therefore, the active principle of man. So of 
every other ruling love. This is seen to be so from the fact, 
that if the hopes of the love are destroyed, the man sinks into 
despair or apathy, and consequent total inaction. The man 



% 



TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 263 

whose prospects in business are hopelessly blasted, gives up 
business, and too often sinks into dissipation. He who utterly 
despairs of gaining the affections and the person of his mistress, 
becomes reckless of the proprieties of life, and not unfrequently 
commits suicide. Indeed, innumerable are the instances which 
go to show, that if the love is destroyed, the principle of action 
is entirely gone. Hence love is the active principle of man ; 
and, by parity, love must be the active principle of God. 

Now the simple question is, can love act, if it have not some- 
thing to react on it 1 Can love exist, or operate, or show itself, 
or be appreciable to the objects of it, without a form ? How 
can the divine love appear, or be appreciable, to any man, if it 
has not a son in the bosom of it, to bring it forth to view ? 
Who can see the love of man without his body 1 Man's 
thought, or his affection, is but an embodyment of his love. It 
is a form of it, that flows from it, reacts on it, is in the bosom 
of it and brings it forth to view. And the thought, or the affec- 
tion, cannot at all exist without an organ ; and this organ is some 
conformation of substance which ultimates, limits, reacts on, 
and furnishes a perfectly correspondent form to, the thought or 
the affection. For instance, how can the thought speak without 
the organs of speech. How can the affection, or its intelligence, 
see without the eye, hear without the ear, act without the hand, 
or effectuate any of its ends without an appropriate organiza- 
tion ? So the love, which is a still more universal principle — 
is the essence of all — can effect no end, without an organized 
form, which ultimates, limits and reacts on it, so as to produce 
it correspondently in effect. How can the air as a simple sub- 
stance produce any effect? Suppose it to issue from a central 
source without any thing to react on it, would it not spend itself 
in the immensity of space ? And if thus infinitely diffused, 
what effect could it produce ? It would discourse no etherial 
music, if there were no eolian strings to vibrate at its touch. 
And it would utter no intelligible sound, if that which reacted 
^on it were not an intelligent form. How can you produce 
music by air alone, without the conformation of the mouth, or 
- of the flute, or of some other instrument 1 Is not the perfection 



264 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM 

of the music in the perfection of the form ? Look at the fluids 
of the body. How can the blood effect any thing in the nutri- 
tion of the body, without the apparatus of heart, and arteries, 
and veins, to react on it ? How can the nervous fluid perform 
the functions of the mind, without the reactive powers of the 
nerves ? How would any of the humours be contained, and be 
efficient in their respective uses, unless they were limited, held 
in and reacted on by the skin ? If the skin is taken away, it is 
well known that the vital fluids pass off, and the body dies : 
and by no possibility can the body be kept alive if the skin is 
destroyed, as by burning. This shows the indispensable ne- 
cessity of reaction on the bodily fluids, to preserve bodily life. 
This principle is universal. If you do not hem your handker- 
chief, or if the weaver has not made a selvedge to it, it will fray 
out. If you do not tie a knot in your thread, your seam will 
ultimately rip. Nothing, in fact, can consist in a permanent 
existence — nothing can at all exist — if it have not a limit, an 
ultimate, a reactive plane or principle. And why should not 
this be true of God ? How can a divine essence, simply or ab- 
stractly considered, produce any divine result? The divine 
love is the divine essence, or the divine active principle ; how 
can this produce any effect either in creating and sustaining the 
world, or in redeeming or saving men, without some divine re- 
active principle? It is clearly against the whole nature of 
things to suppose such a thing. 

Now we have already proved that that which reacts on the 
divine love or essence is the word, which is Jesus Christ, who 
is the form, the wisdom, the power, the express image of God. 
Thus the divine internal must have a divine external — the di- 
vine essence must have a divine form. God must be in the 
word, or the world could not be created and sustained — God 
must be in Christ Jesus reconciling the world unto himself, or 
mankind could not be redeemed and saved. 

But it is difficult to conceive how the divine essence can be 
limited. And the reason is, because our ideas of a limit are 
formed from time and space. It is true that God cannot be 
limited in space : and all the difficulty of conceiving of Jesus 



TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION, 265 

Christ as God, arises from our thinking of him as a material 
man. Matter is a subject of extension in space and of perma- 
nence in time : and a limit of matter, therefore, is a limit of 
time and space. But God is not a subject of either. He is in 
all time without time, and in all space without space. This 
may be apprehended by reflecting on the properties of thought 
and affection within ourselves. Time and space cannot be 
predicated of these. There is nothing of length, or breadth, 
or depth, or of lapse of time in affection or thought. These 
are indeed in space when they act into the body, or become 
conspicuous in the body. But who does not see that an intelli- 
gent thought, or a benevolent affection, has nothing to do with 
the size, or age, or matter of a man's face 1 Who does not 
see that the perfect picture of that thought or affection may be 
as well expressed in the smallest miniature as in the largest full 
length portrait ? Reflection, then, will soon tell us that thought 
and affection have nothing of the properties of matter, or its 
time and space, in them. It cannot be said that they are so 
long or so broad, or so young or so old. The lines of mathe- 
matics cannot limit or express them. They are something 
within and above all material configuration, though they may, 
for a time, dwell and be conspicuous in a material body. So 
God may be in matter without being subject to matter : and 
the external which forms, limits and reacts on the divine essence 
is something which is above the properties of matter, or its 
time and space. Therefore, to conceive of this external, we 
must lift our thoughts out of time and space, and think of form 
in a philosophical sense. 

Now, in a philosophical sense, form is not material shape, but 
relation and adaptation of means to an end. Hence you will 
hear an anatomist, when speaking of a skeleton, say it is beau- 
tiful — certainly not beautiful as to its shape, but admirably so 
indeed, when its wonderful adaptation to the ends of its con- 
struction are considered ! You will hear a mechanic extolling 
in the same way his machine. It is the perfect adaptation of 
the machine to the purpose for which it is made, which consti- 
tutes its perfection of form in his eye. The perfect form of a 

24 



266 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM 

flute is its perfect adaptation to produce certain modifications 
of the air in musical tones. So of a violin. A boy would say 
a beautiful flute was one made of ivory or ebony, and inlaid 
with silver or gold, and exquisitely wrought and polished. He 
would regard in the violin, too, the material and the cabinet- 
work. But the enthusiastic professor or amateur in music 
values his old Cremona for no such properties. Philosophical 
perfection of form, then, is not perfection of shape or material 
configuration. Therefore the form of God is not the shape of 
God, but the adaptation of means to his ends: and God's limit 
is that in which his ends close ; and his ends close in their per- 
fect effectuation. 

There are, as we have shown, three principles in God — love y 
wisdom and use. These are ends, causes and effects. Or 
they are good, truth and the conjunction of good and truth. 
Good is an active endeavour, (ruth is its reactive power, and 
when endeavour is conjoined to its perfect power, it is an effi- 
cient form of use in some subject of that use. The conjunction 
of good and truth in use, then, is the limit of God. It is that 
in which God rests from his labour and says it is good, it is 
very good. 

Use is love in form : and it is clearly evident that the form 
of use may be as perfect in an animalcule as in an elephant, 
or in a single man as in a world. It might, therefore, have 
been as perfect in the one person Jesus Christ, as in the whole 
universe ; and as divinity consists in this perfection of state, 
and not in physical extension or conformation, therefore Jesus 
Christ was God, because in him there was a perfect union of 
divine goodness and divine truth in divine use. 

Thus the perfect ultimation of interior principles in use is per- 
fect form. The degree of space or time, or the material configu- 
ration, has little or nothing to do with its perfection. Hence it 
is the perfect adaptation of man for all uses, which makes him 
a perfect form. And this does not lie in his shape, but in the 
perfect relation and subordination of parts to a whole. To con- 
ceive, therefore, of the form, the limit, the external of God, we 
must lift our minds out of the ideas of time, space and mate- 



TO EFFECT REDEMPT10X AXD SALVATIOX. 267 

riality, and fix them on the ideas of a perfect state of relation 
of parts to a whole, or of adaptation of means to an end. We 
must think of the perfect conjunction of good and truth in the 
forms of use — of the perfect and inevitable effectuation of ends 
by their adequate causes — in which effectuation the ends close 
and rest as in their appropriate term or limit. 

Therefore, in considering Jesus Christ as God, we must not 
regard him as a person merely, but look at his qualities in his 
person : for his divinity lies not in his person, but in the divine 
qualities, even the complex qualities of the whole godhead, 
which dwell and are conspicuous in his person. These con- 
stitute his form. His person is but the subject of this form, as 
matter is but the subject of shape. His manhood is his form of 
divine goodness, which is a perfect correspondence to divine 
love — is a perfect adaptation to present the emotions, and effect 
the ends, of divine love. His person is but an object which 
fixes the thought and determines it to the consideration of the 
divine qualities which inhere in and are operative through his 
person. To allow the thought to rest in the person, is idolatry; 
for it is worshiping what is external without what is internal. 
Thus the divine essence must have a divine form ; and the 
divine essence in form is divine love in divine use. 

Now the main use of divine love is a heaven of human 
beings : for the very nature of love is a desire and an effort to 
make others happy out of itself. Hence comes creation : for 
without creation there would be no beings to receive and reci- 
procate the divine love. No other end could actuate God in 
creation, because his own glory, or his own happiness, was 
complete from eternity ; and therefore he could not effect or 
increase either by any creation in time. Hence his end in 
creating was to make beings happy out of himself, by making 
them more and more receptive of him to eternity. Hence the 
creation of man : for man is a form most perfectly receptive of 
the influences of divine love, so as to be made happy in the 
reception and manifestation of it. Heaven is that state of man 
in which he is most perfectly concordant and correspondent to 
the activities of the divine love ; or, it is the most perfect con- 



268 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM 

sociation and arrangement of all those beings who are thus 
concordant and correspondent. 

But man, to enjoy heaven in the reception and reciprocity of 
divine love, must be free to receive it and live it as of himself. 
And in the abuse of this freedom, he in fact lost all conformity 
to the divine love, so as to be on the verge of utter destruction 
as a true man. The spirits of men, passing into the spiritual 
world by the death of the material body, had risen to the very 
confines of heaven, and were endangering the existence of hea- 
ven and the kingdom of God itself; just as a mortification of the 
foot, in rising to the vitals, endangers the life of the whole body. 
And unless these spirits had been removed, the heavens been 
reduced to order, and man on earth been again subjected to 
healthful divine influences, all flesh must have perished. 

Now how was man to be saved ? Could he have been saved 
by a mere principle of divine love? That is the question. We 
have seen that all principles of life are modified by the forms 
into which they flow. Now how could the divine love save a 
diabolical man, or a diabolical spirit, by flowing into him as a 
simple principle, a mere unity of essence, a mere etherial ema- 
nation ? Would not divine love flowing into a diabolical spirit 
in this way have made him still more diabolical ? For, accord- 
ing to the law of order, the divine life flowing into him would 
appear to be in him as his own, and would not be received in 
its own intrinsic quality, but would be modified by the quality of 
his form, just as wholesome food is modified by a diseased 
stomach, or the rays of the sun by a putrifying substance, or 
by a poisonous plant. Hence God flowing as a simple divine 
principle into a devil, would make him still more a devil. In 
like manner, coming to a bad man thus, he would make him 
still worse ; for the divine love flowing as a principle of love 
into man as a form of self-love, would make him still more 
selfish. Hence the divine love flowing in this way into man, 
would have been most inevitably destructive of him, and con- 
sequently of heaven and the whole universe. How then was 
man to be saved by a mere principle of love or goodness in 
God, or by a mere divine essence 1 Man could not see God as 



TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 209 

such an essence, for he lives, and moves, and has his being in 
that essence as an all pervading principle. And if he could 
not see God, he could have no idea of him so as to be con- 
formed to him : and without such conformation he could not 
receive God as a principle adequately to his salvation ; for God 
coming as such a principle to him in a contrary state, would 
destroy him, just as the heat of the sun decomposes a dead 
carcass. 

It is very evident, then, that God, to save man, must come 
to him in a form adapted to his state ; that is, the divine essence 
must clothe itself in a form apprehensible to human thought and 
affection ; and without such a clothing, or limiting, or finitingof 
the essence, it is clearly manifest that no flesh could have been 
saved. 

And it can be shown with equal clearness, that the Deity 
never could have created any thing unless, or until, he had 
produced from his essence an ultimate, by the reaction of which 
on his essence he could form and make discrete recipient sub- 
jects of his own life. It is perfectly evident, also, that he 
could not make man in any other way, because, in the actual 
creation of him, he formed first the earth and the world, with 
all their material appurtenances, and all the most common 
forms of vegetable and animal life, before man was produced. 
Hence it is perfectly clear, that, without something to react on 
the divine essence, that essence never could have created and 
sustained the world, or redeemed and saved man. 

The Word of God declares that by the word the heavens and 
the earths were made ; and when man had corrupted his way 
on the earth, so that no flesh could have been saved — when 
" his iniquities had separated between him and his God, and 
his sins had hid his face from him," the same Word of God 
declares that Jehovah took to himself an arm of flesh, and ex- 
pressly says, that he put on an external covering, as it were a 
breastplate, a hemlet, a garment and a cloak. " Yea, truth 
faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey : 
and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no 
judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered 

24* 



270 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM 

that there was no intercessor : therefore his arm brought sal- 
vation unto him ; and his righteousness it sustained him. For 
he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of sal- 
vation upon his head ; and he put on the garment of vengeance 
for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak." Here you 
see that the divine essence took to itself an external which came 
between it and the human race, and so was an intercessor be- 
tween God and man. By this external, the divine internal 
acquired the power to reach and affect the state of man, while 
man acted as a free agent, having apparently life in himself. 
By this external, the divine essence acquired poiver to change 
man's state without destroying the appearance of man's living 
in himself, or without destroying the appearance of his chang- 
ing his character himself by the exercise of his own faculties. 
Hence this external was to the divine essence an arm ; for the 
arm is the instrument of the body's power. 

You see, then, it was not the divine essence of itself which 
produced salvation, but the divine essence stretched out from 
itself an arm, and the arm brought salvation to the divine es- 
sence. Thus it was the reactive principle from the active, and 
not the active of itself. Consequently, it was necessary for the 
divine active to have a divine reactive, or salvation could not 
have been effected. " And I looked, and there was none to 
help ; and I wondered that there was none to uphold : therefore 
mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it up- 
held me." 

It is perfectly clear, then, on philosophical principles, that 
God must have had an external, either to create or to save 
man. And the same train of reasoning leads directly to the 
conclusion, that it was necessary for him, in order to save the 
human race, to clothe himself in materiality. For we have 
seen that God, to save man, must needs have come into a form 
apprehensible to his thought and affection. Now man is lost 
when he is in a completely corporeal and sensual state of affec- 
tion and thought. In this state his thoughts are suggested, and 
his affections ruled, entirely by evil spirits, till at length his 
very body is possessed by them, and they, by acting through 



TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 271 

his involuntary muscles, move him at their will without any 
will of his own. And the Lord flowing as a mere active divine 
principle into man in this state, would have been received ac- 
cording to man's form, so as to have smitten him with a more 
direful curse. The divine life, flowing as a principle of life 
into the evil spirits attendant on him, would but have increased 
the appearance of life in those spirits, and this would have ren- 
dered indefinitely more intense their diabolical influence on man, 
until all men would have been utterly destroyed in the consum- 
mation of hellish passions. The Lord could not, therefore, 
flow into man from within, but had to close up the issues of in- 
terior divine life and approach him from without. By coming 
to him as a personification of truth to his senses and his cor- 
poreal affections, while the evil of those affections was kept 
quiescent, or covered and removed by an association with good 
spirits, or by a divine sphere from himself, he could gradually 
inform his understanding, store his memory, rectify his will, 
and ultimately correct his action, so as to change his form, and 
fit it once more to receive correspondently the influences of di- 
vine love from within. But to do this, he had to clothe his own 
divine form in a form similar to man's, and similar to that of 
the spirits attendant on him. Hence he had to come in a sen- 
sual and corporeal form. Else man and devil would have been 
repelled from him, just as an owl or a bat is repelled from light, 
or a frozen serpent is repelled from fire. 

Indeed the Lord could not at first approach men even in the 
most ultimate material enveloping which he himself could put 
on ; but he had to send John the Baptist, as a forerunner, to 
prepare the way for him. John by the baptism of repentance 
associated men with belter spirits, and so loosened them from 
an association with infernal spirits that they were in some de- 
gree able to bear the Lord's presence, and in some degree free 
to receive and obey his teachings. If the Lord had not thus 
prepared the way for himself, the evil spirits attendant upon 
men, by which many of them were possessed, and without 
whom no man could otherwise have been kept in life and its 
activities, would have receded, so that men would have dropped 



272 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM 

instantly dead, immediately on the Lord's presentation; or if 
this were by any means prevented, all men, under demoniac 
influence, would have so fully acted out their latent evils as to 
produce the utter destruction of the whole human race. But 
by John's baptism, and the repentance of it, some men were 
dissociated from infernal spirits and associated with good spirits 
on the confines of heaven, so as to be able to receive and be 
purified by baptism into the Lord's light and life ; that is, by 
baptism into his wisdom and his love. 

And unless the Lord had taken to himself a corrupt humanity, 
similar to that which infernal spirits had possessed in other 
men ; he could never have come in contact with them so as to 
have let upon them the light of his divine countenance for their 
subjugation. But when he had wrapped up his divine essence 
in a mantle of corrupt clay, which was common to him and to 
them, he could approach them and grapple them ; and then by 
transfusing his essence through his covering, could let them 
perceive and feel its quality even in matter, so that they, tor- 
mented by a quality so different from their own in matter, 
would, in the exercise of their own freedom, recede entirely 
from all matter. Thus the Lord, by taking to himself a cover- 
ing of matter, and expelling from matter in its universal prin- 
ciples all that was homogeneous to infernal spirits, effected their 
expulsion from matter, and so from the involuntary parts of 
man. And by remaining for ever in a divine natural humanity, 
which infinitely and eternally reacts on his divine essence, so 
as fully to ultimate the qualities of that essence in all worlds, 
he has not only effected the expulsion of infernal spirits from 
man and from earth, but he holds them chained for ever, by 
entire and perpetual seclusion, in abodes of outer darkness, so 
that man, no longer possessed by them as to his sensual and 
corporeal principles, can be for ever able to receive the light of 
truth, and free to follow its guidance in ceasing to do evil and 
learning to do well. 

Thus it is clear that God could not have redeemed and saved 
man, if he had not ultimated, and so finited, his divine essence 
in a corrupt material humanity. Without this, neither devils 



TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 273 

nor men could have perceived the divine essence as distinct 
from, and contrary to, their own life. On the contrary, their 
own life would have been strengthened and confirmed by the 
inner influx of that life : hence, without this, the Lord could 
have had no power to remand the one and correct and save the 
other. And therefore Jehovah took a material humanity to 
himself as an arm, whereby he gained power for the subjuga- 
tion of hell and for human redemption. 

Thus we see that, on strict philosophical principles, God 
could not have redeemed and saved man if he had not clothed 
his divine essence in an ultimate form. Wherefore, " Who is 
this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? 
this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness 
of his strength ? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. 
Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like 
him that treadeth in the wine-press ? I have trodden the wine- 
press alone, and of the people there was none with me : for I 
will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ; 
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I 
will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my 
heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked 
and there was none to help ; and I wondered that there was 
none to uphold : therefore mine own arm brought salvation 
unto me ; and my fury it upheld me." (Isa. lxiii. 1 — 5.) 



SERMON XVI 



JEREMIAH, IV. 25. 

« I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens 
had fled." 

We have now, at some length and with considerable minute- 
ness of illustration, stated the new-church doctrine of the Lord. 
And those who investigate the matter will find that no where 
but in the New Jerusalem is there a belief in a divine humanity. 
The truth that Jehovah assumed human nature upon earth — 
that this human nature has life in itself as Jehovah has life in 
himself, and thus that this human nature is God as Jehovah is 
God — has no place in the tenets of the sects now prevailing in 
Christendom. In respect to Unitarians this is quite manifest : 
for they hold that Jesus Christ is a mere man, and that it is im- 
pious to give form and embodyment to Deity. And though it 
may not be so clear in respect to Trinitarians, since they hold 
that Jesus Christ is in some sense divine ; yet it will be found 
to be correct in respect to them also. For they hold that Jesus 
Christ has two natures, a divine and a human : and they so 
separate his human from his divine nature as to suppose that 
there is no divinity in his human nature. But the truth is that 
his human nature is divine. For Peter confessed that Jesus, 
as the son of ?nan, is Christ the son of the living God ; and 
we have shown, in our previous discourses, and shall have oc- 
casion to show again in our next, that the son of man as the 
son of the living God, is the humanity of the Lord made divine 
by a process of glorification. 

Since, then, nothing more peculiarly characterizes a church 



DIVINE HUMANITY OP THE LORD ILLUSTRATED. 275 

than the view which it takes of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
since the truth that the humanity of the Lord Jesus is divine, 
is no where received in the old christian church ; while it is 
the truth which is fundamental and central to that whole doc- 
trinal system called the New Jerusalem ; hence it must be 
manifest how totally different the New Jerusalem is from the 
old christian church. It must be quite clear, that the new- 
jerusalem church makes no part whatever of the numerous 
sects into which the old christian church is now split up, but is 
an entirely new dispensation of doctrinal truths from the Word 
of God. 

It becomes, therefore, a matter of very considerable impor- 
tance to get a clear and distinct idea of this divine humanity, 
which so peculiarly characterizes the new-jerusalem church, 
and so thoroughly discriminates it from all other churches. 
This is the more necessary, because, as both the idea and the 
term are new, many to whom we preach, not only find a dif- 
ficulty in comprehending what we mean by the Lord's humanity, 
but fall into great misapprehensions of our doctrinal tenets 
generally from obscure or wrong conceptions of this funda- 
mental tenet. We shall, therefore, devote this discourse to a 
familiar illustration of what we understand by the Lord's divine 
humanity. 

Doubtless, enough has been said and shown in our previous 
discourses to make the term we are here to explain sufficiently 
apprehensible to some minds, but we design in this discourse 
to make it clearly so to all who have any genuine affection for 
spiritual things. 

Now the only way in which we can form a correct idea of 
the Lord's humanity is by acquiring a right idea of our own. 
Our ideas of manhood are always according to our state. The 
mere sensual and corporeal man makes it to consist in the 
bodily form and the bodily powers. Hence the ancient Romans 
applied the word virtus, from which comes our word virtue, to 
virile strength and animal courage. They were a martial peo- 
ple. Their delight was war. The gratification of their life's 
love, the attainment of all the objects of their ambition, there- 



276 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF 

fore, lay in military prowess ; and this, in that day, was 
grounded in physical strength : for the science by which men 
are now killed secundum artem, was not then known, but whole 
armies fought man to man in so many single combats, which 
were mainly decided by the greater bodily powers of the indi- 
vidual combatants. Hence, with the ancient Romans, manhood 
was esteemed to consist in a great development of the animal 
powers. 

But as the character of man changes, from physical to sci- 
entific, intellectual, moral, or spiritual, the idea of manhood 
becomes elevated. Still the difference in the forms of man- 
hood of the respective grades is strongly marked. And if 
those who are in a lower grade form their ideas of the Lord's 
manhood by their own model, they will have wrong concep- 
tions of his humanity. For instance, the intellectual man, the 
man of bare intellect, whose heart has not been softened by 
the mellowing influences of celestial love, thinks manhood con- 
sists in mere strength of intellect. His character is formed 
upon mere truth ; and truth without good is hard, harsh and 
condemnatory. With him, therefore, manhood is strength, vi- 
gour, boldness, daring and stern inflexibility of character. He 
eschews, as he would the pollution of dishonour, any thing like 
softness of feeling. This he calls unmanly weakness. He is 
rough in his manners, and negligent of his personal appear- 
ance- He prides himself upon the strength and thickness of 
his beard, the brawn of his muscle, and his infinite elevation 
above all womanish sensibility. It would be irreverant to ex- 
press what such a man might have thought, if he had been 
present, when as it is stated in the Gospel, " Jesus wept" ! 

But, not to follow out the train of thought into which this 
suggestion would lead us, we will only say, it. cannot but be 
manifest to any person of any considerable degree of mental 
elevation, that our bodies are but inert matter, determined in 
their form and propelled in their activities by certain mental, 
moral or spiritual principles within them. Hence it is evident 
that our humanity does not consist in our bodies. And thus, if 
we suppose the Lord's humanity to consist in his body, or his 



THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 277 

personal form and appearance, we shall be egregiously mis- 
taken. Yet we imagine that the great difficulty in conceiving 
how the Lord's humanity could become divine by glorification, 
which some persons profess to feel, arises out of some such 
corporeal or personal notion of his humanity. 

Let it be carefully remarked, then, that our humanity does 
not consist in our bodies, but in those spiritual principles from 
which our bodies exist. Our bodies hold the same relation to 
our real human that our clothes do to our bodies. They are 
but an external material covering suited to the operation of our 
human principle in a world of matter. Let us consider, then, 
what are those spiritual principles which constitute our hu- 
manity? 

By attending to the subjects of our own consciousness, we 
perceive that we are beings who think and feel, or understand 
and will, or have motives to action and modes of acting. These 
properties of our being we in general call mind, and we per- 
ceive that from the activity of these proceed the activity of our 
bodies and all the energies of life. We are aware that the discri- 
mination of the human rnind into will and understanding as its 
two chief constituent faculties, is not common in the present day : 
but that it is not wholly peculiar to the new church, and that it 
has not been unknown to philosophers, may be concluded from 
the following views of Addison, as expressed in the Spectator, 
No. 600 : " The soul consists of many faculties, as the under- 
standing and the will, with all the senses, both outward and in- 
ward." This is a strictly true definition of the human con- 
stitution, with its three discrete divisions — of the will, to which 
belongs love or good ; of the understanding, to which belongs 
wisdom or truth ; and of the senses, to which belongs science or 
knowledge. And a man's love, wisdom and learning, flowing 
simultaneously into, or subsiding in, a useful life, constitute his 
humanity. The body is merely a complex of material organs 
or instruments by which this humanity acts in and upon the 
material world. 

It is clear, then, that our humanity is not our material form 
25 



278 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF 

and energy, but is our mind, or that spiritual form, in and by 
which our essence, or inmost principle of life, or our love, ope- 
rates. Our humanity, therefore, is that which thinks, reasons? 
understands, perceives, feels, and acts; or, in a word, is the form 
of our love. It is the complex form of use, in which a good 
will clothes itself by means of an enlightened understanding. 

Now these faculties of ours, in our original creation, were in a 
perfect state ; and, as nothing which exists can be without form, 
they were in a perfect form. We were created in the image 
and likeness of God, and thus were in a truly human form. 
We were made capable of knowing, loving and serving God ; 
and in the degree that we became acquainted with him and his 
laws of order, and conformed ourselves to those laws, we be- 
came moulded into his image and likeness, and were thus truly 
men. For in this degree we were influenced by the divine love, 
and our form was the form of the divine love, which is the truly 
human form. 

But from this high estate we fell. And our fall consisted in 
a perversion of these our faculties ; in withdrawing them from 
God, and attaching them to earth. It consisted in a perversion 
of our love, whereby we ceased to love God as our ultimate 
end, and learned to love self and the world, as ultimate ends ; 
and thus from celestial and spiritual w 7 e became merely cor- 
poreal beings. From this radical change in our character, we 
ceased to act with a view to the good of others, and began to 
act with a sole reference to our own gratification. This prin- 
ciple in its entire ultimation leads to the destruction of all others 
when they oppose the gratification of our wishes, and to the 
indulgence of mere corporeal appetites without any relish what- 
ever for intellectual and moral delights. We were now, there- 
fore, on the point of losing every vestige of the truly human 
character, and of becoming mere animals. Our destruction as 
men, therefore, was at hand. And it was necessary to redeem 
and save us from this destruction. We could not save our- 
selves ; for we had lost all power to see what is true and to do 
what is good. He that made alone could save. " And he saw 



THE DIVIXE HUMANITY 07 THE LORD. 279 

that there was no man ; and wondered that there was no in- 
tercessor : therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and 
his righteousness it sustained him." (Isaiah, lix. 16.) 

The import of this text was shown in our last discourse. 
Here we may remark so much of it as is parallel to our pre- 
sent text. It says, Jehovah " saw there was no man" This 
was spoken in prophetic allusion to the consummation of the 
church — to that state of the world in which true humanity was 
about to become extinct, and all mankind were on the verge of 
moral and spiritual destruction. It was not because there were 
no animals in human shape. For there were Nephalim and 
Anakim in those days — men of prodigious physical and mere 
intellectual strength — men, too, who were proud of their strength 
and their intelligence: but there was none of that innocence of 
wisdom, none of that child-like simplicity of character, that 
child-like teachableness of spirit, that child-like imitation of our 
Heavenly Father's example, which constitutes the true man, — 
the spiritual and the celestial man, — and without which no one 
can enter into the kingdom of God. 

There was then no man because the Lord was no where re- 
ceived, and his image and likeness were no where reflected. He 
is chaste, meek and lowly ; doing not his own will, forgiving 
injuries, lending without expectation of return, doing good with- 
out a view to any recompense of reward ; in short, actuated in 
all things by love unconfined, all-embracing love. Hence from 
his love of the universal human race, he could weep in the view 
of their utter destruction. 

But, at the time the Lord came into the world, mankind, as 
they are described by an apostle of that day, were " vain in 
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened — Pro- 
fessing themselves to be wise, they became fools : and changed 
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like 
corruptible man, and to birds and to four-footed beasts, and 
creeping things. Wherefore, they were given up to the vilest 
and most abominable affections and practices — Being filled 
with all unrighteousness — fornication, wickedness, covetous- 
ness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malig- 



280 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF 

/ 

nity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, 
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, with- 
out understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, 
implacable, unmerciful; who, knowing the judgment of God, 
(that they which commit such things are worthy of death,) not 
only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them." 
Yes ! with the men of that day it was manly to do such things. 
And he who could surpass ail others in such things, was, in 
their estimation, most truly a man. As in the time of Alexan- 
der, or the early kings of England, so then, he was the most 
of a man who could drink the greatest quantity of spirituous 
liquor without getting drunk. Then, as now, it was manly to 
deflower innocence, or pollute the sacred shrine of domestic 
virtue and peace, and boast of it. To resent an injury, to call 
a man out and kill him in deadly combat for calling you a liar, 
even when he told the truth, was then as now, to be a man 
of spirit a true man. Then any thing like refinement of sen- 
timent or feeling was effeminacy ; and to weep was to be 
a woman or a baby. Then, in short, pride, vanity, conceit 
in his powers as his own, and all that concatenation of evil 
affections and false imaginations which hang from self-love 
as a hook, had destroyed every vestige of true humanity 
in mankind. And therefore, when Jehovah looked down 
upon the earth, " he saw that there was no man" The 
turning of the affections of mankind outward to things of 
sense had closed up the interiors of their minds. The hea- 
ven that was over their head was brass, and the ground that 
was under their feet was iron. Mere natural passion was 
the inmost of their soul, and the form of this was their 
manhood. 

But the only true manhood is the form of divine love. It is 
that development of muscular form and force, that contour of 
visage, that expression of countenance, that symmetry of re- 
lative parts; in short, it is just that, whatever you choose to call 
it, by which the affections and purposes of divine love are mani- 
fested and effected in corresponding uses. When, therefore, the 
human soul had perverted the influences of the divine love into 



THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 281 

self-love, and the form of the human soul no longer manifested 
the activities of the divine love, but manifested the activities of 
self-love, there was no man. 

And there was no intercessor, because there was no medium 
between the divine love and the human soul, by which the di- 
vine love might be communicated to it, and produce in it again 
the form of that love, which is the truly human form. 

The mediator between the divine love and the human soul, 
is divine truth. For this binds the strong man of self-love and 
spoils his goods. Truth leads to self-denial ; and in the de- 
gree that self is denied and driven out, the love of God flows 
in. For there can no more be a vacuum in the spiritual, than 
in the natural, world. Thus truth mediates, by so altering 
man's love as to make it correspondent to the divine love. 
And as man's mind was so perverted that light from heaven 
flowing into it was changed into falsehood, — since men had put 
darkness for light and light for darkness, — therefore there was 
nothing to come in between God and man, so that divine in- 
fluences could reach man for his salvation. Therefore the arm 
of Jehovah "brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness 
it sustained him." 

Jehovah who had made man, descended himself to redeem 
him. To redeem him it was necessary to bring his faculties 
from a perverted into an orderly state — to pluck them from the 
corporeal things in which they were immersed, and to make 
them again receptive of the things of heaven. To effect all 
this, it seems it was necessary that he should descend to earth 
and assume that nature which man had corrupted. The Scrip. 
tures tell us that he did so. He shed forth from himself a 
sphere of his essence. He shed forth from his essence an 
emanation of vital truth. This was his holy spirit breathed 
into the material universe for man's redemption. This spirit 
of the Most High clothed itself in matter in a virgin's womb. 
Thus Jehovah took human nature into conjunction with his 
invisible and unapproachable essence; and thus stretched forth 
an arm into the natural world. He w bowed his heavens and 
came down." The virgin, overshadowed by the spirit of the 
25* 



282 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF 

Most High God, brought forth a child that was God-tvith-v$. 
The word which was in the beginning with God, and was God, 
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, 
as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. As 
the whole spiritual world, like a vast ocean pressing on a point, 
clothes itself in a seed, and developes itself in a tree, a plant or a 
flower, so the whole godhead — all that is good and all that is true 
— the infinite essence and the infinite form, clothed itself in a child, 
so that all, from essential divinity to matter, could say, " unto 
us a child is born." All that is divine, all that is celestial, all 
that is spiritual, clothed itself with a correspondent natural 
form, comparatively as the vegetable soul clothes itself with a 
correspondent material form — the essence of the rose with the 
form of the rose — or as the vital blood clothes itself with brain, 
and nerve, and heart, and arteries, and bone, and sinew, and 
muscle, and all the compages of various fibres and simple com- 
ponent parts, which, with their enveloping membranes and 
cuticles, make up the body ; and thus all that is divine, and 
celestial, and spiritual, bodied itself forth in a natural image 
and likeness of itself, as a man's soul bodies itself forth in a 
son that is begotten of him: so that all that is divine, and ce- 
lestial, and spiritual, could say, u unto us a son is given:" 
which son, like the fulcrum of a lever, sustained in a point all the 
power of Deity ; for all the fulness of the godhead dwelt in him 
bodily : so that " the government was upon his shoulder :" 
and he, hence, could be called " Wonderful, Counsellor, God, 
Hero, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace." 

Thus Jehovah descended, as the word or divine truth, into 
the form of a child, which was Immanuel. " And the child 
grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and the 
grace of God was upon him." (Luke, ii. 40.) " He increased 
in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." 
(verse 52.) He received instruction from the doctors in the 
temple, and he fulfilled every jot and tittle of the Scriptures. 
Thus he assumed the mental faculties of man, with all the cor- 
ruptions of man's moral turpitude — he assumed man's sensual, 
scientific, rational, intellectual and moral faculties, and made 



THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 283 

them divine by conforming them to the divine law. He thus 
assumed man's corrupt humanity, and made it a divine 
humanity. All that corporeal part in which he was born from 
the virgin, and by which he took upon him all the sins and 
corruptions of the whole mass of mankind, he put off, with all 
its evil affections and desires, and all its false maxims ; and 
from the divine principle within him acquired to himself an 
absolutely perfect, a divine human character. And as this 
character, consisting of certain specific faculties or properties, 
is an absolute existence; and all and every existence must have 
form, he thus acquired to himself a divine human form. This 
is what we understand by the two terms Jesus — Christ ; Jesus 
signifying all that is good in that character, and Christ all that 
is true. 

Thus Jesus Christ is the outward manifestation of Jehovah 
himself, and so is the form of Jehovah himself. This form, 
this outward manifestation, is what we are to understand by the 
Lord's divine humanity. This is that glorious body, which 
Peter, James and John saw when Jesus was transfigured on the 
mount. This is that glorious person who so did the will of the 
divine love as to be the divine love in form. This is that 
glorious Son of God who hath life in himself as his father hath 
life in himself, so as to be essential life in form. Hence this is 
He who is God in form — who is God in humanity — who is, in 
short, the Divine Humanity. For the new church teaches 
that " Jesus Christ was the name of the Lord in the world ; 
thus the name of his human principle. But as to his divinity, 
his name was Jehovah and God." (Apoc. Ex. 20.) Hence 
Jesus Christ is the name of what the Lord still retains from the 
world, namely, his divine-natural body, or his human form, 
which is the divine humanity of Jehovah God. 

Such is a familiar and plain illustration of what we un- 
derstand by the term divine humanity. It is, in short, true 
manhood. 

All we have to do, then, in concluding this topic, is to con- 
firm the views which we have advanced, by a brief explanation 



284 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF 

of our text — " I beheld, and, lo, there was no man ; and all 
the birds of the heavens had fl,ed" 

If this text, and the chapter from which it is taken, are com- 
pared with the passage from Isaiah, upon which we have just 
remarked, any one of any spiritual discernment must see that 
they treat of a state of the church, in which it is vastated of all 
genuine goodness and truth. This must be the conviction es- 
pecially in studying the text together with .the verse which 
immediately precedes, and that which immediately succeeds, it. 
" I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled ; and all the 
hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man ; and^ 
all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the 
fruitful place was a wilderness ; and all the cities thereof were 
broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce an- 
ger. Thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be 
desolate." 

It must be very manifest that "these things are said con- 
cerning the devastation of the church as to all the good and 
truth thereof," when the Lord, by the light of his advent, has 
made plain its real spiritual condition. 

By mountains and hills in the natural world, are signified 
celestial and spiritual loves : for what is high in nature, signi- 
fies what is interior or internal in spirit ; and spiritual love is 
the interior, and celestial love is the internal, principle of man. 
Hence, by the mountains trembling, and by the hills moving, 
which are catastrophes that overturn and destroy the natural 
form of things, is meant those changes in the form and quality 
of man's spirit, by which the celestial and spiritual character 
of his loves is destroyed. And we are now instructed, that, in 
the spiritual world, where natural objects appear as in this 
world, but not of a fixed material nature as here, being merely 
spiritual forms corresponding to the minds of spirits and angels 
there, the mountains and hills upon which spirits dwell, are ac- 
tually put in commotion and overthrown, when there no longer 
exists with the spirits that inhabit them any celestial or spirit- 
ual love. Hence any such similar changes of state in the 



THE DIV1XE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 285 

church are represented in the Word — which is written according 
to correspondences — by the recital of such natural commotions 
in this world. 

.When, therefore, it is said in the text, Jhe Lord beheld no 
man, it is not to be supposed that the Lord in his advent saw 
no material bodies, or no natural personages, on earth : but by 
man is to be understood the spiritual form or quality of the 
mind, to which the natural form and activity of the body cor- 
respond ; and by the Lord's beholding no man, when he makes 
his advent, is to be understood, that, at that time, there is none 
of the true form, or the genuine quality, of real manhood in 
the church. 

Now that which constitutes a man, distinctively such, is 
strength of intellect. And strength of intellect in spiritual 
things is the effect of the understanding of truth. And there 
is no genuine and permanent understanding of truth, without 
the love of truth for its own sake, which is spiritual love, or 
the love of good for its own sake, which is celestial love. The 
true man, then, is celestial or spiritual love formed by and in 
the understanding of truth. And when it is said in the text, or 
elsewhere in the Word, that there is no man, it means that 
there is no understanding of truth in consequence of a defect 
of that genuine love of good and truth which is charity in the 
church. 

By birds are signified the intellectual powers of the mind 
raised high up in the regions of spiritual contemplation by .the 
science and thought of truth, as birds are raised up high in the 
air by wings. Hence by all the birds of the heavens being 
fled, is meant there was no longer any science and consequent 
thought of spiritual truth in the church. 

Compare this text with Zephaniah, i. 3, " I will consume 
man and beast ; I will consume the birds of the heavens and 
the fishes of the sea ; I will cut off man from the faces of the 
earth." Here "to consume man and beast, signifies to destroy 
spiritual and natural affection ; to consume the birds of the 
heavens and the fishes of the sea, signifies to destroy the per- 
ceptions and the knowledges of truth. And as the state of the 



288 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF 

church is described as to its devastation of all those spiritual 
forms and qualities which in the complex make it a true and 
genuine church of the Lord, therefore, it is said, i I will cut off 
man from the faces of the earth ;' for by the earth is signified 
the church, as the church exists on earth, and the thing con- 
taining is named to signify the thing contained ; and by the 
faces of the earth is signified the interior of the church, because 
the face is that in which the interiors of the mind are expressed ; 
and by man is signified the all of the church as to its interior 
qualities in one complex form ." 

See, further, Isaiah, xli. 28, "I beheld, and there was no 
man, even amongst them, and there was no counsellor." Here 
it is manifest, by inspection of the context, that by man and 
counsellor is meant the internal of the church, that is, the in- 
ternal man, who is one that is wise and intelligent. So in 
Jeremiah, v. 1, " Run ye through the streets of Jerusalem, 
and see if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth 
judgment, that seeketh truth." 

By comparing these parallel passages of Scripture with our 
text, it is made sufficiently plain what it is that constitutes a 
true man, and hence what it is that makes true manhood. 

A true man is he " that executeth judgment, and that seeketh 
truth." One that executes judgment is a wise man, and one 
that seeks truth is an intelligent man % For none but the truly 
wise can judge justly, and no one can be truly intelligent who 
is not made so by the knowledge and practice of truth. Hence 
true manhood consists in wisdom and intelligence. And when 
these qualities are wanting in the church, it is said the Lord 
can find no man on the earth. And as man is made intelligent 
and wise by the knowledge and practice of truth from the love 
of it for its own sake, therefore truth itself, abstractly con- 
sidered, is truly man ; so that when it is said there is no man 
on earth, it is meant that the church has become devastated of 
all genuine truth, and all genuine love of truth. 

But by the term truth as here used, is not to be understood a 
mere intellectual form. It is a vital activity. It is the form of 
good. Hence it is good itself in form and activity. Wherefore 



THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 287 

true manhood is the form and activity of genuine goodness. 
And as there is no genuine goodness which does not flow from 
and body forth the divine love, hence true manhood is the form 
and activity of divine love. 

It is perfectly clear, then, what we are to understand by the 
term divine humanity, namely, the perfect form of divine love, 
which is the perfect effectuation of the ends of that love. By the 
perfect effectuation of its ends, the divine love comes fully forth 
into spiritual form and efficiency. And the complex of all means 
for the effectuation of the ends of divine love is the divine truth* 
Hence the divine love brought into life, by conformity of the 
divine will to the precepts of divine truth, is the Humanity of 
Jehovah God. And this is Jesus Christ, who came not to do 
his own will, but the will of the father who sent him — whose 
meat was to do the will of the father who sent him, and to finish 
his work ; and who did this will by fulfilling every jot and tittle 
of the Sacred Scriptures — even in his sufferings enduring 
only what Moses, the Prophets and all the Scriptures predicted 
he must needs suffer, " to enter into his glory," which was 
" the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace 
and truth" 

Having thus shown what the New Jerusalem teaches re- 
specting the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Humanity of Jeho- 
vah God, we shall proceed, in our next discourse, to point out 
the alterative and rending effects which the doctrine of this 
divine humanity is to produce in Christendom. 



SERMON XVII. 



LUKE, XX. 18. 

( * Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken : but on whom- 
soever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." 

There are many in the present day who think the words 
and sentences of the Bible have no other sense than that which 
they had in the ordinary language of the time in which they 
were written or uttered. And hence they suppose that the 
Bible is to be interpreted by the same rules which would govern 
the interpretation of any other book of antiquity. But it is 
very manifest that the language which the Divine Being con- 
descends to use in accommodation to man, must be only an 
outward covering of a deeply inward form of divine thought 
and affection. For the sayings of wise men, though framed 
with words familiar to common ears, are pregnant with ideas 
of hidden wisdom ; and we cannot for a moment suppose that 
the Divine Being would speak with less meaning than a wise 
mortal. Hence the apostle speaks of " ihe deep things of God." 
And he makes a distinction between the wisdom of this world 
and the wisdom of God, which, he says, is spoken in a mys~ 
tery ; and is only to be discerned by those who have become 
spiritually minded by receiving the mind of Christ. According 
to this apostle, then, there is the hidden wisdom of God in the 
things which the holy ghost teaches. And as, according to 
another apostle, the Scriptures were given in olden time by 
holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the holy 
ghost, and as, in after ages, the Scriptures of the New Testa- 
ment were spoken by the Lord, who had the holy spirit dwell- 
ing in him and proceeding from him, hence the Word of the 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 28 

Old and New Testaments has within it the hidden wisdom of 
God. Of course, this Word must be understood by spiritual 
discernment, and not by mere natural interpretation : because 
" the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; 
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned." Hence he who thinks 
that the Bible has no other meaning than the natural sense of 
its verbal expressions, is like one who should determine that 
no mines of gold and silver were in the bowels of a mountain 
because he saw nothing but forest trees upon its surface. But 
as a nearer approach and a closer inspection sometimes discover 
veins of precious ore jutting from even the surface of a moun- 
tain, so a diligent perusal often discerns a manifest spiritual 
sense protruding itself even into the literal expressions of the 
Sacred Scriptures. Such is the character of our text. For it 
is very manifest that under the similitude of a stoiie, which the 
builders rejected, becoming the head of the corner, breaking 
those who should fall upon it, and grinding to powder those 
upon whom it should fall, is conveyed some lesson of deep 
spiritual instruction. Let. us then inquire, what is meant by 
the stone which the builders rejected. And when we have as- 
certained this, we can know what it is to fall on that stone and 
be broken ; and also, what it is to have that stone fall on any 
one and grind him to powder. 

The stone which the builders rejected means Jesus Christ. 
Or stone is a word suggesting the appropriate material idea oi 
that truth which declares Jesus Christ to be the son of God, 
that is, the proceeding emanation and the manifested form of 
the divine essence. And by this stone's becoming the head of 
the corner, is clearly meant, that this truth is fundamental to 
that entire temple of consecutive and orderly arranged truths 
which constitute the church in a doctrinal form. 

That this is the spiritual meaning of the word stone in our 
text is clear from parallel passages. For instance, in Matthew, 
xvi. 13, Jesus asked his disciples, saying, " Whom do men say 
that I, the Son of Man, am ? And they said, some say that 
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or 

26 



290 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye 
that I am ? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art 
Christ the son of the living God. — And Jesus answered and 
said unto him, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
my church : and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." 
The name Peter in this passage signifies stone. For the word 
that is here rendered Peter, signifies stone in the greek. And 
the word which is rendered rock, also signifies stone in that 
language. 

Now the question is, what did the Lord mean by " this rock," 
upon which he said he would found his church. Some tell us 
that he meant Peter ; and that he, by these words, constituted 
Peter, or his successor, his vice-gerent, or the head of his 
church, on earth. And they moreover tell us that, when the 
Lord says, in the next verse, " I will give unto thee the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shall bind on 
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
on earth shall be loosed in heaven," he transferred to Peter, 
and to his successor the pope, the power of opening and shut- 
ting heaven, and of absolving men from their sins, or of doom- 
ing them to punishment on account of them. They insist upon 
this, too, and say there can be no doubt of it, because it is 
plainly and positively asserted. Thus they found their doc- 
trine upon the Scriptures in their apparent sense only, as if the 
words of Scripture have no other meaning than they would 
have in any ordinary book. 

But we are not sure that their doctrine that the Lord meant 
Peter when he said upon " this rock" will I found my church, 
can be drawn even from the apparent sense of this passage. 
For any one who can read the greek will see that the Lord 
uses to express rock a different word from that by which he 
called Peter. He says, in answer to Peter's confession of him 
as the son of God, " Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona," that is, 
Simon son of Jonas, " for flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
unto thee, but my father which is in heaven. And I say also 
unto thee, Thou art Terpo$" — that is the word in greek by which 
the Lord named him; and it signifies, as we have said, a stone. 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 291 

But when the Lord proceeds and says, "Upon this rock I will 
build my church," he uses the word 7reTpa, which, as you will 
perceive, is a different word from 7rerpo<;, and signifies a rock as 
well as a stone. 

It is clear, then, that the Lord did not allude to Peter, even 
in the mere letter of his words, when he said upon this rocfc 
will I build my church. We may rather imagine that the 
Lord, while he looked at Peter and said to him with his lips 
" Thou art Peter," pointed with his finger to himself as he used 
the words " this rock." And then the church would not be 
founded even apparently on Peter. For the apparent sense 
would then be, Thou art a stone — thou art a truth, or thou art 
true as to the confession which thou hast made — thou art faith, 
or thou representest faith in the truth which thou hast con- 
fessed : and upon this rock [pointing to himself] — upon me, 
that is, upon the truth itself which thou hast confessed, upon 
the truth that I am Christ the son of the living God, will I 
build my church. 

The rock, then, upon which the church is built is the truth 
itself — Peter is the faith of that truth ; and the church is only 
so far built in us, as that truth comes into our faith. There- 
fore, the chief corner stone on which the whole temple of doc- 
trinal truths is built, is the rock, the truth that Christ is the 
son of the living God. Thus the chief corner stone is Christ 
himself. For Christ and his truth are one. 

This is clear from the verses which precede our text. For 
it was in express reference to the son whom the Lord of the 
vineyard had sent, and whom the husbandmen cast out of the 
vineyard and killed, that Jesus applies the prediction in Psalm 
cxviii. 22, where it is written, "The stone which the builders 
refused, is become the head of the corner." Jesus, therefore, 
identifies the son with the corner stone. Wherefore, he alluded 
to the son — to Christ — to himself — when he said, " upon this 
rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not pre- 
vail against it :" which means that he would found the church 
upon the truth, that Jesus Christ is God manifested in human 
nature ; and that all those false doctrines which open from hell, 



292 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

that is, which flow into the mind from self-love and love of the 
world ; and which lead to hell, that is, which confirm the mind 
in the indulgence of those evil loves, and thus are the gates of 
hell ; shall not prevail to sap that fundamental truth of the 
church, or to destroy the church which is founded upon the 
practical acknowledgment of it. And the universal extension of 
this truth ultimately in the church, is predicted by Daniel, (ii. 
35,) in these words, " The stone which smote the image be- 
came a great mountain and filled the whole earth." 

They are wrong, then, who suppose that the Lord meant to 
say that he would build his church upon Peter. For he meant 
to say that he would build his church upon himself, or upon 
the truth which proceeds from him, or upon Peter only so far 
as he represented faith in that truth. And you may see this 
confirmed by Peter himself in Acts, iv. 10, 11, where he says, 
" Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that 
by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, 
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man 
stand here before you whole. This is the stone which is set at 
nought of you builders, which is become the head of the cor- 
ner" Here this same prediction in the Psalms is applied ex- 
pressly to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and he is most unequivo- 
cally shown to be that corner stone, that rock, upon which the 
church is built. Paul also says, " Other foundation can no 
man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. iii. 11.) 

In a general sense, then, the stone which the builders rejected 
is that truth upon which heaven and the church is founded, 
namely, the truth that Jesus, as the son of man, is Christ, the 
son of the living God. But it is all-important that we should 
have a more specific idea of this fundamental truth of the 
church. And in order to see what specific truth is meant by 
the stone which the builders rejected, we must understand the 
distinction between the two terms son of man and son of God, 
as well as attend to the meaning of the word Christ. And in 
order to understand the distinction between the son of God and 
the son of man, we must recollect what has been stated on for- 
mer occasions, namely, that the Lord Jesus had, like one of us, 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 293 

an internal, an interior, and an external mind. In man these, 
which are called the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural re- 
gions of the mind, and which make man capable of enjoying 
eternal life in the three heavens, are as distinct as affection, 
thought and speech, or as will, understanding and action ; and 
they are equally distinct in the Lord. The Lord's internal 
was Jehovah, or the divine esse, or the divine love ; the Lord's 
interior was the divine wisdom, which is the form of the divine 
love, and is the word which was in the beginning with God and 
was God ; and the Lord's external was, at first, the human na- 
ture which he assumed from the mother Mary, and afterwards 
was the humanity which, in the glorification of that human na- 
ture, he produced from the divinity within him. Now the Lord 
Jesus, as to the divine wisdom or the word, which was made 
flesh in him, and formed his interior or rational mind, was called 
the son of God ; but as to the human nature which he assumed 
from his mother, and which formed his external or natural 
mind, he was called the son of man. This was the son of man 
before his glorification, and it was then formed by truth from 
the letter of the Word. But after his glorification, the son of 
man was divine truth in the natural degree. 

The distinction, then, between the son of God and the son 
of man is the same as the distinction between the Lord's inte- 
rior and external mind. And Christ signifies the Anointed. 
For this is the meaning of the greek word Xpta-rog. The same 
is the meaning of the hebrew word Messiah. Hence, in John, 
i. 41, Andrew, after he has found his brother Simon, says unto 
him, " We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, 
the Christ," or the Anointed. 

Now it will be recollected that anointing was made with oil. 
Thus the kings of Israel were anointed by pouring oil on the 
head. And when the king had royalty thus conferred on him, 
he was called the Lord's anointed. Thus David, after his 
heart smote him for having privily cut off the skirt of Saul's 
robe, says to his men, respecting Saul, who was then king of 
Israel, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my mas- 
ter the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, 

26* 



294 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

seeing he is the anointed of the Lord" And kings were so 
called because they were the types of Christ. Hence, because 
David too, as king of Israel, was a type of Christ, he says, in 
the twentieth Psalm, " Now know I that the Lord saveth his 
anointed" In like manner Isaiah says, xlv. 1, "Thus saith 
the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus :" for Cyrus also was a type 
of Christ. 

If, then, it is known that oil in the Word signifies the good 
which is done from a principle of love, and that, therefore, the 
anointing with oil signifies the imparting of love as a principle 
of action to the mind, it will be seen that the Lord Jesus, so 
far as he acted from the principle of divine love, was the 
Christ, or the Anointed. 

To see this yet more clearly, it may be well to reflect that 
the Lord descended from heaven as the divine truth ; for he 
was the w r ord made flesh, and the word is the truth of God. 
Yet he did not separate from it the divine good : for John says 
that he was in the bosom of the father and brought the father 
forth to view ; and he himself said, " the father is in me ;" 
and we have frequently proved that the father signifies, in the 
Sacred Scriptures, the divine good. Therefore, he was divine 
truth as to his external, and divine good as to his internal man. 
Or he was truth as to his understanding, and good as to his 
will. Or, to be still more accurate, he was the obedience of 
divine truth as to his external man — hence, he fulfilled every 
jot and tittle of the Sacred Scriptures ; he was the understand- 
ing of all that is divinely good and true as to his interior man — 
hence he says, " No man knoweth the father save the son ;" 
and he was the will of what is divinely good and true, or the 
divine love itself, as to his internal man — hence he said, " All 
things that the father hath are mine :" and in respect to his be- 
ing all three, namely, the obedience, the understanding and the 
will of all that is divinely good and true, he says, " I am the 
way, the truth and the life." Now so far as the Lord Jesus 
brought good, from his will or love, by truth, which formed 
his understanding, into action, and thus united his external to 
his internal man, just so far the truth in his understanding was 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 295 

anointed with oil, arid he as to that truth so anointed was the 
Christ. 

The stone, then, on which the church is founded, is truth 
anointed with good ; or, to use the phraseology of the new 
church, it is the truth of good, that is, the truth seen in the 
light which is shed abroad in the mind by the good affections 
of a regenerated heart. Hence, when Peter had confessed that 
the Lord as the son of man is Christ the son of the living God, 
Jesus answered and said unto him, " Blessed art thou, Simon 
Barjona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but 
my father which is in heaven." Peter, and those who are sig- 
nified by Peter, namely, those who are in mere faith, or in 
mere truth, do not discover the truth that the son of man is the 
son of the living God by the light of their own reason, nor are 
they able to confess it from the affections of their natural heart 
— flesh and blood do not reveal it unto them ; for, as Paul also 
says, " flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of hea- 
ven," and hence cannot ascend into heaven and bring down 
Christ from above : but it is revealed to them by the Lord's 
father which is in heaven ; that is, it is revealed to them by the 
principle of love in their internal man : for heaven signifies the 
internal mind, because the internal has correspondentially the 
same relation to the external mind, which heaven has to earth. 
And in the Lord's internal mind was the divine love. Thus 
the divine love was his father in his heaven ; and so far as by 
regeneration from him the principle of divine love is imparted 
to the internal mind of his disciples, so far his father is in their 
heaven : and when the principle of divine love is in the internal 
mind of his disciples from the Lord, there is a light generated 
by this love in their understandings which enables them to see 
that Jesus Christ is God. Hence the Lord said to Peter, " my 
father which is in heaven hath revealed it unto thee ;" that is, 
love from God in your internal mind has enabled you to see 
that the son of man is the anointed of the father, is the son of 
the living God — in other words, has enabled you to see that 
even my external man, or my ultimate humanity, is divine. 
So then the stone upon which the church is founded is truth 



296 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

grounded in good. It is not truth as science merely — nor is it 
truth as mere doctrine — nor is it truth as faith alone ; but it is 
truth as charity and its works. It is truth in outward life. It 
is truth as seen and felt in experience, and confessed from the 
good affections of a regenerated heart. For as the corner and 
foundation stone is laid in the earth, and is sustained by the 
earth, so is the truth, on which the church is founded, laid in 
ultimate good, and is sustained by that good. And as the 
whole house or temple rests upon its foundation, hence the 
corner stone, or chief fundamental truth, by which all the rest 
are squared, signifies and involves all other fundamental truths 
and all the truths of heaven and the church which rest upon 
these. Hence it is on account of this signification of the corner 
stone, as denoting all divine truth upon which the church is 
founded, that it is said in Isaiah, xxviii. 16, " Behold, I lay in 
Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner 
stone, a sure foundation." Mark, the Lord says, I lay in Zion, 
a stone — not in Jerusalem. For Zion signifies the church as 
to love, and Jerusalem the church as to faith. Hence the 
foundation stone of the church is laid in the good of love : and 
the good of love is what love does according to truth. So, also, 
it is on account of the signification of corner stone as denoting 
all divine truth on which the church is founded, that the Lord 
says, in the verses to which we have adverted, " upon this 
rock," that is, upon the one truth which Peter had confessed, 
" will I build my church." The true church is genuine charity ; 
and when the truth that the humanity of the Lord is divine has 
become the pervading, or universally reigning, principle of a 
man's conduct, then genuine charity exists and abides in his 
soul, and spreads a sphere of its quality on all around. 

The specific truth, then, which is meant by the stone which 
the builders rejected, is that one particular truth which Peter 
confessed, namely, that the son of man, or the Lord's external 
man, is Christ, the son of the living God. In other words, it is 
the truth that the human nature of Jesus Christ is divine, or that 
Jesus Christ is God even as to his human nature. For the con- 
fession of Peter is, that the son of man is Christ, the son of the 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN" CHURCH. 297 

living God. And, as we have seen, the son of man is the Lord's 
external man, that is, the humanity which he assumed in this 
world. And this became Christ, the son of the living God, by 
being anointed from the father, that is, by being united through 
the Lord's interior with his internal man ; or, in other words, 
the Lord's external man was made entirely correspondent to ' 
the divine love, which was the Lord's internal man, by acting 
in all things according to the dictates of the divine wisdom in 
his interior or rational mind. Thus the Lord's external man 
became itself divine, just as a man becomes externally good by 
regeneration from God. That is, the external, with its external 
thoughts and affections, became good by being united to a good 
will through obedience to the rational dictates of an understand- 
ing enlightened by the truths of God's Word. Thus God's 
Word guided the Lord's external man as a father guides a son. 
And hence the Lord's external man, so far as it was thus re- 
generated or glorified by the Word, became the son of the Word. 
For the external man of the Lord, by being conformed to the 
Word, was begotten into the image and likeness of the Word, 
and thus was its son. And as the divine truth, which the 
Word contains, when it was made flesh and dwelt among us, 
was not separated from the divine good, but, as the Lord's in- 
terior mind, had the divine love dwelling in it as his internal 
mind, hence it was the living Word. And as this Word was 
thus in the beginning with God and was God, hence when the 
Lord's external man or humanity became the son of this living 
Word, it also became the son of the living God, and conse- 
quently is itself divine. 

The truth, then, that the humanity of Jesus Christ is divine, 
is that one fundamental truth, that sure foundation stone, on 
which the true church is ever founded. This is the truth on 
which rest all the doctrines of the New Jerusalem. 

This is the radical truth which the Jews refused. For men 
in the days of the Jewish church said that Jesus, as the son of 
man, was John the Baptist, or Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the 
prophets. Thus they regarded him only as an ordinary man, 
or as a prophet sent from God, and not as God himself. It is 



298 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

well known that the Jews sought to stone him, and did at length 
crucify him, for calling himself the son of God, and making 
himself equal with God by doing the work of God in forgiving 
sins. 

This, too, is the truth which all denominations of the old 
christian church have rejected in the present day. For now 
also Jesus, as the son of man, is regarded only as a prophet 
sent from God. Even those who believe that Jesus Christ is in 
any sense divine, hold that his human nature, or his human 
soul, is like that of any other man, and thus not divine. They 
all, therefore, have rejected the truth that Jesus Christ is divine 
as to his human nature. Consequently, this truth is that stone 
which the builders in all ages have rejected. And the reason 
why they have rejected it is, because it is laid in Zion, and not 
in Jerusalem ; because it is revealed by the Lord's father in 
heaven, and not by flesh and blood ; or, in a word, because it 
can be seen only in spiritual and not in natural light. Did the 
Lord come in his own name, that is, did he come in the charac- 
ter and quality of a natural man, the natural man would receive 
him. He would then favour the loves of the natural man, and 
would preach the doctrines which the natural man can under- 
stand. But because he comes in the name of the father who 
sent him — because he comes in the quality of a divinely spirit- 
ual man, and preaches the doctrines of supreme love to God 
and the neighbour, the natural man, who is principled in love 
to self and the world, does not understand, and cannot but 
reject, him. 

From what has now been advanced, we can clearly see, that 
the stone which is mentioned in our text, is the truth that Jesus 
Christ is divine even as to his human nature : and the text very 
significantly pourtrays the effects which the rejection or the re- 
ception of this truth must produce in the church. 

We have repeatedly said that nothing more peculiarly charac- 
terizes a church than the view which it takes of the Lord Jesus 
Christ : and no one point of doctrine so accurately and so. 
thoroughly discriminates the different divisions of the christian 
church as the doctrine of the Lord. The reason is, because 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 299 

all Scripture concerns Jesus Christ: for the Lord, as he accom- 
panied the two disciples to Emmaus, " beginning at Moses, 
and all the Prophets, expounded to them, in all the Scriptures, 
the things concerning himself," (Luke, xxiv. 2 :) thus showing 
that there are things which concern him in all the Scriptures. 
Since, then, all Scripture treats of Jesus Christ, and the church 
is founded on the Scriptures, and has a quality according to its 
view of the Scriptures, it is hence manifest that the character 
of the whole church, and the distinctive character of its divi- 
sions, must be determined by its views of Jesus Christ. Hence 
it is that the truth which respects him and his divinity, is put 
for all other truths in the Word, and is called the corner stone 
on which all the doctrines that constitute the church are built. 
For all other truths in the Word converge to this truth as radii 
to a centre. 

The Lord spoke and acted out the Word, and therefore the 
Word and he are one. Thus the church that is founded on 
the Word is founded on him. And hence, if there is error in 
the view of his character, there is error in the view of the 
Word. If he, for instance, be regarded as a mere man, the 
Word will be considered as only a natural book. But if he be 
regarded as a divine man, the Word will be admitted and seen 
to be a divine book. If he be rejected, the Word will be de- 
spised. But if he be received, the Word will be loved and 
practised. Thus invariably will the Word be viewed in pre- 
cisely the same light in which the Lord its author is viewed. 
Thus the whole Word rests on him, and hence the whole 
church, which is formed from the Word, must likewise rest on 
him. 

Hence rending and alterative consequences must flow from 
the rejection or reception of the truth which declares him to be 
divine. For if he is divine, and men deny it, — as a truth 
which regards him must be fundamental, — then their denial of 
this truth vitiates their whole mind as to the things of the 
church. For, as we have said, it vitiates the view which their 
mind takes of the Word — it causes them to view the Word in 
the same light as any mere human composition. But if the 



300 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

Lord was divine, then the Word also which he spoke, was di- 
vine. Consequently, the notion that his Word is a mere human 
composition is false. And a false idea of the Word in general 
causes a false construction of all its particular truths. Hence 
their entire view of the Word is false. And as the church is 
founded on the Word, and has its quality according to its view 
of the Word, hence the whole church in them is made false by 
a false view of the Word resulting from their denial of the 
Lord's divinity. 

On the other hand, supposing men to have imbibed, by edu- 
cation or prescription, notions of faith and practice founded on 
the idea that Jesus Christ, as to his human nature, is nothing 
more than any other man, when they fully and practically 
admit this fundamental truth that the human nature of Jesus 
Christ is divine, all such notions are dissipated; because they 
cannot square with this as a corner stone, and cannot cohere 
as a regular foundation built upon it. 

Thus, so far as a man rejects and opposes the truth that 
Jesus Christ as to his human nature is God, his spiritual mind 
is crushed and destroyed ; and so far as this truth gets admis- 
sion into a man by a practical reception, it dissipates the false 
notions which previously existed in his mind. And thus who- 
soever falls on this stone is broken; but on whomsoever it falls 
it grinds him to powder. 

When, therefore, the Lord said to his disciples, " Whom do 
men say that I, the Son of Man, am ?" you see that he pro- 
pounded a most penetrating and searching question. And if 
you reflect deeply on Peter's answer in connection with our 
text, you will perhaps see that the truth which he confessed, 
namely, the truth which declares the Lord's humanity divine, 
is destined to break up and destroy all the existing combina- 
tions of the old christian church. 

The effect of the rejection of this truth upon the individual 
character, can be easily seen. For if a man denies, opposes 
or rejects this truth in spirit, he cuts himself off from the true 
vine. He is without the influx of spiritual truth. He is dis- 
sociated in spirit from those angels who are in that truth and 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 301 

who could, as ministering spirits, convey it to him. He is 
without the influence of celestial affections, because dissociated 
from those celestial angels who behold their Heavenly Father's 
face, and who therefore are the mediums of his heavenly good 
to man. He is, therefore, without the culture of the Heavenly 
Husbandman, who alone can impart to man the truly vegeta- 
tive soul of heaven. Not thinking of the divine humanity of 
Jehovah, which is the only mediator between God and man, he 
has not that humanity spiritually present to his soul ; and not 
loving and doing the good of that humanity, it is not conjoined 
to his soul; and thus there is no means of Jehovah's immediate 
influx into him so as to impart to him the 'principles of celestial 
and spiritual life. Hence, when a man rejects the truth that 
the Lord as to his humanity is divine, he cuts himself off from 
the mediate and more immediate influx of the Lord's love and 
life, so as to come gradually under the entire influence of self- 
ish and worldly affections. He may not, indeed, while in this 
world of deceptious appearances, where there is an outside to 
things often very different from their inside, put off the courte- 
sies and elegancies of life; but he has only the shell of hu- 
manity, without its kernel. He has the shell with a rotten 
kernel : for the sound kernel of humanity is divine and hea- 
venly love — is supreme love to God and purely disinterested 
love to others. Yet selfish and worldly love may assume the 
form of heavenly love — wolves may put on sheep's clothing, 
and a devil may appear as an angel of light. But when the 
soul passes into the other world, the shell of humanity, in 
which selfish and worldly love envelopes itself, is cracked, so as 
to expose to view the rotten kernel : and the stone on which it 
is cracked is the divinity of the Lord's humanity. 
- In the spiritual world, where spiritual things present them- 
selves in forms visible and perceptible to the senses of its in- 
habitants, this process is represented by a way, in which all 
who pass from this world to the next are seen walking in com- 
mon. The reason of this is, because, when men first come into 
the world of spirits, they are in their external characters, which 
are nearly similar. But after a while the road forks, with a 

27 



302 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

stone in the corner. This stone represents the truth of which 
we are now treating, and which is signified by the stone in our 
text. The one road represents the way to heaven, which is 
the life of celestial and spiritual loves ; the other road repre- 
sents the way to hell, which is the life of selfish and worldly 
loves. On coming to this stone, the internal states of men de- 
parted from the natural world are first manifested. Those who 
have been in the internal acknowledgment of the divinity of the 
Lord's humanity, take the road to heaven ; but those who have 
been in the internal rejection of this truth, take the road to hell. 
This is a spiritual representation of the gradual development of 
their internal life, according to the laws of the spiritual world. 
And the spiritual world is nothing more than the mind of man, 
in this case made visible to mental discernment. Every indi- 
vidual mind is an image of the whole spiritual world, and all 
individual minds token together constitute the spiritual world in 
the complex. Hence what is here said of the spiritual world 
is true of the minds of men even while they are existing on earth ; 
for the spiritual world makes one with the natural world, just as 
the soul makes one with the body. 

As, then, the case is with the individual mind, so when men 
in a mass, as one collective man, come to this stone of which 
we are speaking, it separates the spiritual from the natural ; and 
the spiritual go into spiritual life, while the natural go into na- 
tural life. Thus man in the mass is broken, and is ground to 
powder. For the same is true of the individual man, as to the 
effect of this truth upon his individual mind, and the mass is 
made up of individuals. When the mind falls upon that stone, 
or rejects the truth that the Lord's humanity is divine, it divests 
itself of all spiritually, and becomes wholly natural, so that its 
spiritual form is broken or crushed. But when this stone falls 
upon the mind, that is, when the truth that the Lord's humanity 
is divine comes into and conforms the mind to itself, the mind 
becomes wholly spiritual, and the evils andfalses of the natural 
man are separated, dissipated or blown away. This is signi- 
fied, in our english translation of the text, by a man's being 
ground to powder. 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 303 

But the original text is susceptible of a somewhat different 
rendering. The word which our english translators have ren- 
dered grind to powder, is Xupuiret ; which is the third person 
singular, future tense^ of the verb Xikvlkoj, derived from Xtxpoq, 
which means a van, or sieve, for sifting or winnowing corn. 
The true literal idea of this greek word is, therefore, to sepa- 
rate corn from the chaff, and hence, metaphorically, to separate 
and disperse in a general sense. Consequently, the true literal 
meaning of the text is, on whomsoever that stone shall fall, it shall 
winnow him — it shall separate the corn from the chaff in him. 

The english translators were, doubtless, led to render this 
word by the english verb to grind, from their keeping in mind 
the material meaning of the word stone. For, not being able 
to conceive how a stone could winnow grain, they imagined 
that allusion was made to triturating grain in stone mortars, or 
grinding it with a mill stone. Hence they rendered this word 
by grind to powder. But the greek word has not this signi- 
fication ; and this signification is not required by the spiritual 
sense of the passage. The stone which the builders rejected, 
as a fundamental truth of the church, separates the spiritual 
from the natural man, both in the individual and in the mass. 
Hence a word was wanted which signified separation, and such 
is the greek word A/x^o-fi. 

However, grinding, so far as it separates the outer husk from 
the inner farinaceous substance of the grain, expresses substan- 
tially the same idea. The separating of the bran from the fine 
flour by bolting, [which may be embraced in the generic term 
grinding,] is the same thing in relation to the internal man, 
which the separating the chaff from the grain by winnowing is 
in respect to the external man. Therefore the phrase grinding 
to powder may be retained without perversion of the truth. 
Still the strict literal meaning of the text is to winnow the chaff" 
from the corn : and we think the idea which this meaning con- 
veys is the most appropriate ; for the natural thoughts and af- 
fections of the mind have precisely the same relation to its 
spiritual thoughts and affections which chaff has to corn. The 
natural thought and affection is developed first, and is a means 



304 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

of covering and defending the spiritual thought and affection 
until it is fully formed and ripened. But when the spiritual is 
fully formed and perfected, then the natural dries up, or 
whithers away, and the chaff is separated from the corn. This 
is strikingly illustrated by the decay of the external memory. 
In early life our memory of natural things, — of persons, names, 
events and dates, — is vigorous ; but in after life this memory 
fails, and we have only the memory of our affections, which, as 
to natural things, are affections of their uses. In youth, the 
affections of natural things are a plane for the development of 
spiritual affections; and when the spiritual affections are formed, 
the natural affections fall away like the husk from the ear of 
corn, or like the burr from the chestnut. 

This is seen in that love of knowledge which we have spoken 
of on another occasion, and which peculiarly characterizes 
youth. This love stimulates the young to get knowledge sim- 
ply from the delight of knowing. But when they become men, 
this love in a great measure falls away, and leaves the love of 
the uses to which -knowledge may be put. And it is found that, 
in after life, we forget most, if not all, of the knowledge which 
we have no use for. All the knowledge which we acquire in 
youth serves its use, during that period, in developing our 
faculties; but when this end is attained, the science which was 
only useful to this end, and which is no longer applicable to 
our present pursuits in life, falls away like withered chaff. 

We say, then, universally, that our natural thought and affec- 
tion is a rudiment in which our spiritual principle is first held 
in embryo, and is afterwards formed and perfected; and that 
when the corn of spiritual good is fully formed and ripened, it 
is winnowed, and separated from the chaff of mere natural 
affection. 

But this general idea leads to one that is more particular, and 
more appropriate to the text before us. It will be found that 
all false doctrines are apparent truths, which are the forms of 
our natural affections ; and therefore may be in the same pre- 
dication with respect to our spiritual good that our natural affec- 
tions themselves are. Hence false doctrines have, in the divine 



A TOUCHSTOXE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 305 

mercy, been permitted to prevail, because mankind had become 
merely natural, sensual or corporeal in their affections, and 
these false doctrines were the only approximations to the truth 
which, in such a state of their affections, they were capable 
of receiving. Being apparent truths, they were capable of 
union with good, so as to preserve it until it could be united 
with truths more genuine. Thus they were permitted that 
they might defend and preserve the principle of spiritual life, 
which is latent in natural good. And thus they serve as a 
kind of huslc, in which the grain of wheat is secured from 
blight until it is fully developed and ripened ; then this husk- 
dries up, is threshed off, and winnowed away, as chaff. Hence 
by chaff in the Word is meant false doctrines of every kind. 
The chief of false doctrines is faith alone, which Peter re- 
presented, in Luke, xxii., when he denied the Lord thrice : 
therefore the Lord said to him on that occasion, " Simon, lo, 
Satan hath earnestly desired you, that he might sift you as 
wheat." The faith of the false is like chaff before the wind. 
And when a man is in this faith, the principle of falsity, which is 
Satan, bears a man before it like a hurricane. Hence Sa- 
tan's sifting Peter as wheat represented the church's departure 
from genuine good, or from true charity, so far as from a prin- 
ciple of falsity it came into the doctrine of faith alone. And so 
far as the church comes into faith alone as a confirmed princi- 
ple, it totally denies the Lord, who is love or charity itself. 
When this takes place in the church, it is at its consummation, 
or midnight ; which is signified in the Word by cock-crowing. 
Hence the Lord told Peter, that before the cock crew, he would 
deny him thrice, to denote that the christian church, the faith 
of which Peter then represented, would so decline from its first 
love, or charity, as to come into a state of faith alone ; when, 
having no true charity, it would cease to be a true church, and 
so come to its close, or to spiritual midnight. 

Still this doctrine of faith alone is an apparent truth. For it 

is apparently true that truth, and the faith of truth, are primary, 

because, in point of time, they appear to come first in man's 

salvation. And when this doctrine is embraced by good per- 

27* 



306 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

sons of the church in the innocence of ignorance, and so 
embraced in an honest heart as to lead them to do the works of 
faith or truth, it is, in the divine mercy, a means by which 
spiritual life is preserved in them. Thus it serves as a husk to 
defend the grain of wheat in them, when it is green. The case 
is similar with other false doctrines which may be joined with 
good. On this subject the new church teaches, that " the truths 
which enter into good and qualify it are seldom genuine, but 
are appearances of truth, and are also falses, but still falses not 
opposite to truths : nevertheless, when these flow into good, 
which is the case when the life is formed according to them 
from ignorance, in which ignorance is innocence, and when the 
end is to do good, in this case they are regarded by the Lord 
and in heaven not as falses, but as bearing a resemblance to 
truth, and according to the quality of innocence are accepted as 
truths." And " they within the church may be regenerated 
by means of any doctrine ivhatsoever — though more especially 
by means of genuine truths." For " the Lord does not require 
more from the man of the church than to live according to 
what he knows." This is plainly intimated by the apostle, in 
Acts, xvii. 30, where, speaking of the idolatrous practices of 
the heathen, he says, " And the time of this ignorance God 
winked at :" thus showing that God excuses idolatry in those 
who know no better ; and so establishing the principle that the 
Lord requires men only to act according to their knowledge. 

But in the consummation of the age, when fresh revelations 
of truth are made, and greater and higher knowledge is given, 
He, to use the words of the same apostle, " then commandeth 
all men every where to repent — Because he hath appointed a 
day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by 
that man whom he hath ordained." The man whom Jehovah 
God has ordained is the man Christ Jesus, whom he hath made 
the heir of all things, hath gifted with all power in heaven and 
on earth — thus is that humanity which he himself has assumed 
upon earth, and so glorified as to make it one with himself, 
possessing his life, his infinity and his omnipotence — is, in 
short, the truth which manifests his good, and, by exposing the 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 307 

false doctrines which are contrary to this good, causes the 
good in all churches to separate themselves from them ; and in 
this manner commands all men every where to repent of their 
false doctrines. And just so far as the truth that Jesus Christ 
is the divine humanity of Jehovah God is received in faith and 
practice as the fundamental truth of the church, it must and will 
separate the spiritual from the natural man in the church gene- 
ral and particular — it will dissipate the false doctrines in which 
the good may be ignorantly and innocently principled — and 
thus will winnow the chaff from the wheat. 

Thus we see how the truth that Jesus Christ is God is the 
touchstone which is to prove the whole christian church. It is, 
as we have shown fully on former occasions, a spiritual truth, 
which none but the spiritually minded can discern and bear in 
their lives. Hence it will be " like a sharp two-edged sword, 
— piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of 
the joints and marrow, and proving a discerner of the thoughts 
and intents of the heart," — which will most effectually separate 
between the spiritual and the natural man. Those that fall 
upon, that is, deny this truth, will be broken, or spiritually de- 
stroyed ; and those upon whom it falls, that is, those in whom 
it becomes the reigning principle, it will grind to powder, that 
is, it will dissipate all their false doctrines. 

And who is so blind as not to see that this winnowing pro- 
cess is now going on. The question, is Jesus Christ God, or 
not? is convulsing the whole church to its very centre. Old 
lines of demarcation are broken. It is no longer denomination 
against denomination : but the commotion is becoming intes- 
tine, and war is waging between brethren of the same profes- 
sions. Thus, in a sense, " a sword is sent upon the earth, and 
a man is set at variance against his father, and the daughter 
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mo- 
ther-in-law." u There are wars and rumours of wars — nation 
is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom : and there 
are famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." 
This, we apprehend, is a prelude to the final consummation 
of the old church, and the formation of the new. To this end 



308 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 

there is a fermentation going on in the whole body of the church, 
which will continue till the pure wine stands clear upon its lees. 
The great line of demarcation will hereafter be between what 
is spiritual and what is merely natural. Men of these respec- 
tive descriptions exist more or less in every denomination of the 
old church, and a separation must take place between them. 
Hence existing denominations will be broken into pieces. This 
has already taken place, or is taking place, in some denomina- 
tions; and it will ultimately take place in all. 

We dare to hazard the assertion, that every merely natural 
man is at heart a Unitarian — no matter what may be his ex- 
ternal profession. .The prejudices of education, and considera- 
tions of interest or policy, may now keep him in connection 
with those who hold a different faith ; but when it shall be as 
much to his interest to profess an opposite faith ; so soon as 
the sharp two-edged sword of truth, pierces even to the divid- 
ing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 
so as to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart ; his true 
character will be manifested. 

There are, undoubtedly, pious and good people in all the de- 
nominations of the old church, who will ultimately be saved in 
the light and life of the New Jerusalem: but we apprehend this 
is the exception to a general rule. A new church is always 
formed mainly among the Gentiles — those who are in simple 
good out of the consummated church. Many men, belonging 
to all the denominations of the old church, scarcely know what 
they believe. The fact is, they do not trouble their heads about 
the principles of faith held by their church. They are connected 
with the church by external considerations merely. Their 
chief object is to get along in the world : to acquire business, 
wealth, influence or power. And they attach themselves to 
that persuasion which is most likely to further their views in 
these respects. There are others again who have been educated 
in the principles of religion professed by their fathers, and 
have grown up in an attendance upon its ceremonials of wor- 
ship. They have never investigated for themselves the princi- 
ples they profess. They have taken them for granted from 



A TOUCHSTONE FOIl THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 309 

their parents or their spiritual teachers. The dogmas of their 
church have never been seen in rational light. Such dogmas 
are matters of memory merely, and of thought from memory. 
Hence they can talk about their religion ; be zealous in its pro- 
pagation ; rigid in a conformity to its ceremonial requisitions ; 
while it has no influence whatever in altering the stamina of 
their character. It does not reach and change their love. 
They are still natural men ; because still influenced by natural 
loves. All such men, both those who are influenced by motives 
of interest and policy, and those who are led by prejudices of 
education, are ready to belong to any party which is the most 
popular, and which can be assimilated externally to their pre- 
vious modes of thinking. They cannot discriminate principles. 
They are in results only ; and if results are the same, they 
care not about principles. These are natural men. Those of 
them who are internally good ; that is, those whose wills and 
intentions are upright, or whose lives are, in their degree, con- 
formed to the Lord's commandments, are natural-spiritual; that 
is, are from natural capable of being made spiritual. These 
will ultimately come into the new church. But those of them 
who are internally evil, that is, who are actuated by self-love 
and love of the world, are merely natural, and will ultimately 
become Socinians or Deists. 

This we are inclined to think, will be the ultimity of the old 
christian church. Socinianism, and the next step, deism, are 
naturalism ; and naturalism is the old church gone to seed. 

Persons of the above descriptions form the mass of the 
christian church. There are others less numerous, but of more 
strongly marked character. They may be embraced in the 
general description of those who have confirmed themselves in 
the dogmas of their church from fallacious reasonings. These, 
too, and even those among them who are learned, notwith- 
standing their learning and supposed spiritual sagacity, are 
natural men ; because they derive and confirm their tenets from 
the mere letter of the Scriptures, which consists of the appear- 
ances of truth only. These will decrease as the spirits of the 
dragon are cast out by Michael and his angels : that is, as the 
spirits of those who have been confirmed in the false doctrines 



310 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVIXE HUMANITY 

of the old church are removed from the world of mind, and 
there is a corresponding descent of the new heaven, which we 
are taught has been formed since the last judgment in 1757. 
And as the influences of this heaven descend upon earth, they 
will produce a resolution of the church into the two descriptions 
of men above noticed, namely, natural-spiritual and merely na- 
tural. There may be many distinctive varieties, but these will be 
the general divisions. To this end the commotions which are now 
racking the christian church are tending. For it is a universal 
law, that old affinities must be broken up, sometimes by violent 
processes, before new combinations can be formed. Not to use 
the example of threshing and winnowing grain which our text 
suggests, this is strikingly seen in the formation of chemical 
combinations ; where the previous connection between the parts 
of substances is destroyed by pounding, concussion or attrition, 
so as to leave them free to obey other laws of attraction and 
form various other compositions — examples of which every one 
can see by daily observation of the arts. As a very familiar 
instance we may take the formation of mortar for building. 
The constituents of mortar are lime, sand and water. The 
sand consists of particles of stones separated from their pre- 
vious connections by the operations of nature. The lime is 
made from limestone by the action of fire ; by which process 
certain parts of the limestone are driven off and the connection 
of the remaining parts loosened. The water consists of two 
species of air, or of two gasses ; and thus, though generally 
supposed to be a simple substance, is itself a compound. By 
the union of the water with the lime a further i^esolution takes 
place, which is called slacking the lime. By this process the 
parts of the lime are still further separated, and are brought 
into such a state that they can be combined with the sand. 
And thus by the union of lime, sand and w T ater, mortar is 
formed. Now it is perfectly manifest that if you were to place 
unmodified limestone, sandstone and water together, no com- 
bination would take place : and thus you see, in this case, the 
necessity of a previous comminution of the parts. 

Again, wheat in the sheaf must be first threshed, then win- 
nowed, then ground, then bolted, before it can be made into 



A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 311 

bread ; and then it must be cut or broken, chewed, swallowed 
and digested, before it can go into the composition of our 
bodies. So universally. 

Thus it must be in the formation of new spiritual combina- 
tions. Old spiritual affinities must be broken up, and the parts 
of old associations be comminuted by concussions of various 
kinds, before new associations can be formed by the attractions 
of new spiritual affinities. And this process is now going on. 
Almost all the denominations of the old christian church are 
quarreling among themselves, and splitting up into parties ; 
and those that are not, have within themselves the elements of 
discord, which only require an occasion to burst forth into vio- 
lent action. In this way the associations of the old church are 
breaking up ; and the parts being thus left free, such of them as 
have an affinity will ultimately obey the attractions of the new 
heaven, and arrangino; themselves according to its order, will 
form the new associations of the new-jerusalem church, which 
is now descending from the Lord out of that heaven. 

Thus it may be seen that a great spiritual threshing is going 
on. The Lord has his fan in his hand, and, by his holy spirit 
of truth, he will " thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his 
wheat into his garner : but he will burn up the chaff with un- 
quenchable fire." (Matt. iii. 12.) 

And it must now be clear that the touchstone which is to try 
the characters of men and to effect this mighty work of sepa- 
tion, is the divinity of that humanity which the Lord assumed 
upon earth. This, therefore, is that stone, on which u whosoever 
shall fall shall be broken : but on whomsoever it shall fall, it 
will grind him to powder," or separate in him the chaff from 
the corn. 

Oh that this truth may so fall upon each one and all of us — 
may be so made the corner stone of all our doctrines, and so 
the ruling principle of our lives, that we may be winnowed 
clean from all our falses, and be garnered for ever in heaven! 
And oh thou Son of Man, " thrust in thy sickle and reap: for 
the time is come for thee to reap : for the harvest of the earth 
is ripe" ! 



SERMON XVIII 



MATT. IX. 12, 13. 

" But when Jesus heard, he said unto them, They that be whole need not 
a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that 
meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice ; for I am not come to 
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. " 

When the New Jerusalem has presented and enforced her 
peculiar views of the Lord, and it begins to be felt how com- 
pletely these views subvert the commonly received notion that 
the Lord came to make a propitiation by offering a vicarious 
sacrifice for sin, we often hear it asked, What, then, did Jesus 
Christ come for? It is the design of this discourse to answer 
that question. 

Our present text involves the doctrine, that man, both as an 
individual and as a mass, is fallen from a state of spiritual in- 
tegrity, and that he cannot be again made whole without re- 
demption. The text, therefore, teaches the necessity of re- 
demption. It teaches that, without redemption, there can be no 
salvation. In other words, it teaches that mankind, indivi- 
dually and collectively, are spiritually sick — sick unto death ; 
and that, without a physician, they must all perish eternally. 
It teaches that Jehovah God in humanity, whose high and holy 
name is Jesus Christ, is the true and only physician of the sin- 
sick soul. And it teaches that the prescription which this 
physician gives for the sickness or sin of the soul is repentance. 
Our text, therefore, teaches, that there can be no salvation 
without cessation from sin ; for repentance implies, not merely 
sorrow and contrition on account of sin, but the actual putting 
of sin away — the incessant putting away of all evil as sin 



WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR? 313 

against God. In one word, the text teaches that there can be 
no regeneration without previous reformation — no doing good 
without first ceasing to do evil—no spiritual health in our 
spiritual bodies until, by the physicing of truth from the Lord, 
all diseased spiritual action is previously removed. 

It should be observed, too, that our text exposes a very fun- 
damental error in the prevailing christian church. For the 
fundamental doctrine of that church is, salvation by a vica?*ious 
sacrifice ; whereas the text teaches that the Lord will not have 
sacrifice but mercy. The prevailing church teaches that man is 
saved by the sacrifice of a divine victim as an atonement to divine 
justice for man's violation of its law ; and that the merit of this 
sacrifice, or this atonement, is imputed to man, not as his own. 
but as Christ's, righteousness : so that, when man, by faith, puts 
on this righteousness, he, though in himself a sinner, is regarded 
by Jehovah as just or righteous for Christ's sake. Thus, in the 
view of the prevailing christian church, man is saved by an im- 
puted righteousness, — a righteousness that is not his own, but the 
Lord's imputed to him, — and so imputed as to make him just in 
the eyes of Jehovah. Therefore, in this view, man is saved by 
a principle of justice through sacrifice. He is pardoned and 
accepted of Jehovah because he is just, or righteous, and made 
so, not by any act, either seemingly or really his own, but by 
the sacrifice of the innocent son of God. But the text expressly 
declares that the Lord came not to call the righteous, but sin- 
ners ; and that he saves sinners, not by a sacrifice rendered to 
his justice, but by their own repentance of sin, which is an of- 
fering to his mercy. In truth, then, sinners never are made 
righteous in the eyes of Divine Justice, for even the heaven 
of heavens is unclean in his sight ; but sinners are made 
righteous in the hands of the Divine Mercy, which are the 
operations and powers of the Divine Love, so influencing the 
hearts and lives of sinners as to enable sinners themselves to 
repent of their sins, in order that iniquity may no longer be 
their ruin. 

The New Jerusalem adopts, therefore, the doctrine of the 
Lord in the text, and, with the apostle Paul, holds it to be a 

28 



314 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR? 

faithful saying, which is worthy of all acceptation — worthy of 
the acceptation of those who have received the atonement, as 
well as of those who have not, of Christians as well as of In- 
fidels — that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, 
of whom I am chief. She holds that our salvation is at alt 
times of mercy, and not of justice — is at all times of goodness, 
and not merely of truth. For truth condemns all to hell, and 
would eternally keep them there ; but goodness elevates to 
heaven all who will so put away evil as to receive good in its 
stead. The New Jerusalem holds that all who are saved, are 
saved my mercy as a principle of divine goodness flowing forth 
from the divine love and leading the sinner, in the light and by 
the power of truth, to such a repentance and godly sorrow for 
sin as prompts and enables him freely and rationally to put it 
away. She takes it for granted that salvation is a process 
whereby the sinner ceases to be such. But she maintains that 
the process whereby man ceases to be a sinner is one which 
takes place in his own proper person, and consists in such a 
change of his character, that he is reconciled to God. 

The members of the new-jerusalem church believe that man 
by degeneration has come into a state of contrariety to divine 
order, and that his redemption and salvation consist in bring- 
ing him by reformation and regeneration into a state of recon- 
formity to that order. Thus, in the view of our church, re- 
demption or salvation is a process which goes on in man him- 
self, and which cannot take place by substitution. Thus it is 
a change in his actual condition, whereby he, not factitiously, 
but virtually ceases to be a sinner. And in our view this re- 
demption is wrought out by Immanuel, or God-with-us, who is 
Jesus, or Jehovah, saving his people from their sins. And we 
believe that Jehovah redeems and saves his people, when the 
truth — which Jesus uttered and manifested by his personal in- 
fluences on earth, and which he now, having ascended far 
above all heavens, sheds abroad by his divine human influences 
on the hearts of all who embrace him in faith and love — is re- 
ceived into man's understanding from having its image and 
likeness stamped on his will and life. For in the degree that 

) 



TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. 315 

truth is thus formed in man, his character and condition is so 
changed as to be reconformed to the laws of divine order, and 
thus he is redeemed from the bondage of evil, and is saved from 
his sins. 

This, in our view, is what Christ Jesus came for. And we 
believe he effected this in the general principles of humanity, 
when he came forth from the father and came into the world 
through the assumption of our corrupt nature by conception in 
the womb of the virgin, and when again he left the world and 
went back to the father through the unition of that nature to 
the divine goodness by its glorification in a full conformity to 
the divine law. And this, we believe, is what he still continues 
to effect in the particular parts of humanity, when he comes 
forth from the purified heart into the reformed conduct of every 
individual regenerated soul. 

How this descent and ascent of divinity was effected, none 
but a divine intelligence can know, because it was a divine 
work. But we must believe that God did come down to earth 
to redeem mankind, simply because it is declared that he did 
so in the Word of God. And as in our attempts to illustrate 
the inscrutable process of the Lord's substitution of a divine 
for a material humanity, so in the faint illustrations of this in- 
comprehensible work of redemption which we may attempt to 
make, we do not presume to explain the matter, but endeavour 
merely to assist our weak conceptions by recurring to those si- 
militudes in the nature of the world and of ourselves which 
correspond to the Deity and his invisible operations. 

In illustrating this deep subject, we first show the necessity 
of redemption. We suppose that the universe is created and 
held in consistency as one man : that Jesus Christ, or the hu- 
manity of Jehovah, is this man ; and that the divinity of Jeho- 
vah is its soul. In other words, we suppose that Jehovah is 
the soul of the universe as a body : and that all who are saved 
come into this body, that is, come again into the form of this 
man ; for, says the apostle to members of the church, " Ye 
are the body of Christ." (1 Cor. xii. 27.) Hence we believe 



316 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR? 

that the same laws have force in the moral government of God 
which obtain in the human system. Consequently, that the de- 
rangements of the moral system of the universe are of a na- 
ture like to those of man's physical system, and require a 
somewhat similar curative process. This we infer from the fact 
that the body exists from and corresponds to the soul, and from 
the philosophical axiom that the parts resemble a whole. For 
we thus reason, that, as God is infinite, he acts through all — 
thus infinitely, in creating and sustaining each part ; hence 
that each and every part must bear the impress of the whole 
through which it is created ; and thus that each part must be a 
likeness of the whole. Wherefore, as God has created this 
world, and man, who is its miniature form, through the uni- 
verse, this world, or man, is a likeness of the universe. And, 
therefore, conversely, as this world, or man, its miniature, is a 
component of the universe, we conclude that the universe is a 
human body in a vast complex form ; and therefore subject to 
the same laws on a larger scale which govern the human body 
in its miniature form. Hence we suppose that as from man on 
earth to matter there are gradations of natural beings, so from 
God in heaven to man on earth there are gradations of spirit- 
ual beings ; and that all from God through spirits and men to 
matter are held in consistence precisely as all things are in an 
individual human body. And thus we suppose that all the 
parts of the universe have the harmonious relations, the regu- 
lar connections, the mutual dependencies, and the reciprocal 
actions of one vast body with God as its all-pervading soul ; 
and that the salvation of this body, and of each and every part, 
is its state of universal health. 

Then, as we know that the health of the physical body de- 
pends upon the equilibrium of its parts, we further suppose that 
the health of the great body of the universe depends upon that 
state of universal equilibrium in which, though the whole is 
connected with and acts upon each part, yet each part is kept 
free to obey the impulses of the divine soul flowing into it. 
And we suppose that, if this equilibrium were destroyed in any 



TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. 317 

part, the whole must ultimately be destroyed, just as the whole 
physical body dies from lock-jaw when the foot has been 
wounded by a rusty nail. 

We then assume, as a matter of revelation, that the Divine 
Being keeps up this equilibrium by exactly balancing the 
counter influences of heaven and hell, which have a common 
plane of operation in the breast of mankind upon earth. Man 
in his integrity upon earth is a rational free agent, made and 
kept at liberty to turn to good or to evil. This is the result of 
his being placed between heaven and hell ; which being suffered 
to act upon him with equal strength in opposite directions, the 
force of one neutralises the force of the other, and this pro- 
duces that equilibrity which leaves him free to turn to either. 
By the rational consideration of truth, man's will is determined 
to good — thus he turns to heaven, and hereby heaven flows 
fully into him, rules him, and keeps him free to obey the im- 
pulses of the divine life. For when the truth makes man free, 
he is free indeed. But by the irrational consideration of what 
is false, man's will is determined to evil — thus he turns to hell, 
and hell hereby gets dominion over him, perverts his form, ob- 
structs the influences of the divine life, and makes him the slave 
of sin and death. 

The fact, then, being assumed as a matter of divine revela- 
tion, that man, having been created perfect, that is, an entire 
rational free agent, did actually fall by the abuse of his free 
will, whereby he did actually become the slave of sin and death, 
we can clearly see the necessity of redemption. For, by the 
universal determination of man's will to evil, hell had got such 
a dominion over the human race that the equilibrium between 
heaven and hell was destroyed. Hereby a diseased action was 
induced in this part of the grand man of the universe. A 
mortification took place in the feet, and was spreading up to- 
wards the vitals. The whole system became sympatheticaily 
affected. Morbid forms being ingenerated in the superior parts, 
those parts too were becoming diseased, and, assuming a mor. 
bid action, were obstructing or perverting the influent divine 
life, and hastening on the general dissolution. So that, unless a 

28* 



318 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR? 

medicative remedy had been applied — unless by external and 
internal applications of counteracting causes, the diseased 
action had been changed, a healthy action brought on, the 
mortified parts made to slough off, and sound parts reproduced 
by fresh depositions of healthful substance, no flesh could have 
been saved. 

But how was this remedy to be applied ? The diseased parts 
could not heal themselves. A diseased gland, for instance, 
could not secrete from the blood a substance which would serve 
as an alterative to its morbid action. Nor could the deranged 
stomach secrete sickly juices and at the same time generate a 
medicament to counteract their morbific operation. Nor could 
the mortified limbs cut themselves off, or reassume a healthful 
constitution. It is clear, therefore, that the aid of a physician 
was necessary. Hence a world " dead in trespasses and in 
sins" could not possibly have been raised to life and health 
without " the balm in Gilead and the Great Physician there." 

Thus it is seen that Jehovah himself, who made man, could 
alone redeem him. He only who made the world originally, 
could make it again, when it was destroyed by sin. Only the 
divine soul, which produced the universe, as a body, could heal 
that body by coming down with fresh life and throwing off its 
diseases. This, therefore, is what Jesus Christ came for. 
Jmmanuel, God-with-us, " was wounded for our transgressions, 
he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace 
was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed." 

Bv the abuse of the human will, human nature had come 
into a state of contrariety to the divine nature. This contra- 
riety is sin. All men, being part and parcel of human nature 
in the complex, were becoming involved, or were actually in- 
volved, in this sin. And all flesh having corrupted itself, there 
was no uncorrupting medium of divine life. Jehovah " looked, 
and there was none to help, and he wondered that there was 
none to uphold ; therefore, his own arm brought salvation." 
He descended as divine truth into flesh. Divine truth clothed 
itself in human nature, with all its corruptions thick upon it. 
Truth so manifested was Christ. And the soul of Christ, that 



TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. 319 

is, the soul of divine truth manifested in the flesh, was divine 
goodness, which, as a principle of life, conformed human nature 
in Christ to the divine truth. Thus the divine goodness was in 
Christ, reconforming and so reconciling the world, that is, 
human nature, — for human nature is the world in its complex, 
— unto itself. And so far as human nature was by divine truth 
made conformable and correspondent to divine goodness in 
Christ, that nature was itself made divine. And just so far as 
human nature was in Christ made divine, it was saved from 
sin, that is, it was restored from a state of contrariety to a state 
of conformity to the divine nature. Hence human nature made 
divine goodness by divine truth was called Jesus, because by 
such a glorification of human nature, it was saved from its sins. 
Hence the angel said of God incarnate " thou shalt call his 
name Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their sins." 

The sins of all God's people consisted in that state of con- 
trariety to the divine nature which had been induced upon 
human nature by the abuse of man's free will. Wherefore, just 
so far as that state of contrariety was removed from human 
nature, the sins of God's people were removed. And this state 
of contrariety was, in Jesus Christ, removed from human nature 
in its general and essential principles. This was redemption : 
for hereby hell was subdued and its preponderance over heaven 
done away. And the bringing down this redemption to men 
individually by reformation and regeneration into the image 
and likeness of Jesus Christ is salvation : for hereby the state 
of contrariety to the divine nature which exists in men in- 
dividually is removed, and thus they are saved from their sins. 
The same effects are hereby wrought in them as a body which 
were wrought in Christ as their head. 

Human nature taken into connection with the divine nature, 
and thus making the man Christ Jesus, is a mediator between God 
and man. Thus in the man Christ Jesus the rays of the Sun 
of Righteousness, the all-glorious beamings of the whole god- 
head, are brought to a focus ; and being made to pass through 
human nature purified and elevated in him, as, comparatively, 
the light of a lamp is made to pass through the painted object 



320 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR ? 

in a magic lantern, they form that nature correspondently in 
men beneath, and cause them, as a screen, to reflect its image 
and likeness. And so far as men have the image and likeness 
of Jesus Christ thus formed in them, they are saved, and no fur- 
ther. For so far the divine life, which is in itself unapproacha- 
ble and incomprehensible, flows into them, in a way accommo- 
dated to their state, and throws off their spiritual maladies. 
Thus Jesus Christ is glorified in them who are given to him 
out of the world, and they and he become one, as he and the 
essential divinity are one. 

Thus it is seen wherein consists the necessity of redemption, 
and the necessity of Jehovah coming into the world to effect it. 
And from this portraiture of the necessity of redemption, it is 
discerned what was the process by which redemption was 
effected. In short, by the abuse of man's free agency hell had 
preponderated over heaven in the human breast, and by the 
departure of the spirits of men into the spiritual world was in- 
vading and bearing death and desolation into the confines of 
the heavens. And redemption consisted, first, in Jehovah's 
coming down to the common plane of heavenly and hellish 
operation and conquering there the infernal spirits of evil and 
falsity, thus detruding them from man. and bringing them down 
to their proper grade in the scale of being, so as to make men 
free to do good according to a rational conviction of truth ; and 
secondly, having glorified man's nature in himself, in passing 
up with that nature through all the heavens, so as to arrange 
them and reduce them to order by spreading its glorified in- 
fluences throughout them, and thus freeing them from the 
defilements occasioned by the contaminating approach of in- 
fernal spirits from hell. For when the powers of hell were 
cast down, and the heavens reduced to order, the causes of 
diseased action in the grand man of the universe were counter- 
acted. Thus a remedy was applied to its diseased parts both 
externally and internally. And, consequently, a healthy action 
was brought about, which has been going on, and will continue 
to go on, until man in the universal form shall enjoy a state of 
universal health. 



TO REDEEM AND SAVE MAXKIND. 321 

A familiar illustration of this process of redemption will be 
had, if we advert to the simile of the sun and its earths which 
we used on a former occasion : and we do this the rather, be- 
cause the sun of the world is the actual correspondent and 
representative of the sun of heaven, in which is the Lord ; and 
because, therefore, what is true in a natural sense of the natural 
sun, and the earth, and their respective phenomena, is also 
true, in a spiritual sense, of the Lord, as the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, and the aspects and relations which he and man respec- 
tively bear to each other. It is sufficient to represent man by 
the earth, the spiritual world by the earth's atmospheres, and 
the Lord by the sun. 

The atmospheres and the earth are created from the Lord 
through the sun : and all the forms of being in both are sus- 
tained by the continued influx of the sun's heat and light. The 
earth, in certain states, sends up vapours, which, rising into 
the atmosphere, intercept the sun's influences ; and the earth 
generates miasmata and noxious gasses, which corrupt the vital 
principles of the air. Thus light is measurably cut off and 
heat flows into perverted forms. And unless the vapours are 
dissipated and the atmosphere purified, vegetable decay and ani- 
mal disease and death are the universal consequence. Thus 
far we have a similitude of man's creation by the Sun of 
Righteousness, his perversion of the influences of that sun, of 
the derangement of the spiritual world by the humid vapours 
and perverted forms of life which this perversion sends up, and 
of the spiritual death which impends over him in consequence 
of the rays of the sun of heaven being intercepted by this de- 
rangement of the spiritual world. 

To redeem the earth, the vapours which surround it must be 
dissipated, its atmosphere purified, and the causes of noxious 
exhalations removed. The equilibrium of the atmosphere, 
which had been disturbed, must be restored. The restoration 
of this equilibrium produces aerial currents, and the storms 
which result dissipate atmospheric vapours and purify the air 
by agitation. The electric fluid, too, by its concussive and other 
purificative effects on the air, frees the atmosphere of its mor- 



322 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR? 

bific matters and makes it a clear medium of the sun's salutary 
influences. 

Now, if we thoroughly understood these natural phenomena, 
we doubt not that a striking analogy might be traced between 
them and the process by which the hells were subdued, the 
heavens reduced to order, and mankind redeemed. According 
to the most approved philosophy the electric fluid comes from 
the earth. May it not be the action of certain highly ethereal 
influences of the sun, which the earth's surface will not reflect, 
and which, being converged by the atmosphere, as a convex 
lens, are continually brought to a focus at the earth's centre, 
and thence transmitted divergently to the earth's surface in the 
opposite hemisphere ? If so, then may not the electric fluid re- 
present the Lord's life descending more immediately than in 
the ordinary way, that is, by the medium of the atmospheres, 
which the electric and magnetic fluids transcend ? May not its 
effects in thunder and lightning represent his conflict with the 
hells by divine truth ; and its purifying effect^ on the atmo- 
sphere represent his reduction of the heavens to order ? And 
may not the same things be represented by the storms of wind 
and succeeding calms ? May not the currents in the atmo- 
sphere, which are caused by warm air rising and cold air de- 
scending in consequence of the sun's direct action at the equa- 
tor, figure forth the detrution of the wicked and the elevation 
of the good, which occurs in consequence of the Lord's more 
immediate presence and more direct influence in his advent ? 
And may not the equilibrium which is produced in the atmo- 
sphere by means of its currents, aptly represent the equilibrium 
which the Lord restores between heaven and hell by casting 
down the evil and elevating the good ? For my part, I am per- 
suaded that nature, in these phenomena, furnishes us with some- 
thing more than fanciful similitudes. Certain it is, that nature 
is nothing else than God operating in the material plane of ex- 
istence. And if we could rightly understand her language, she 
would read us a lesson which would greatly help our concep- 
tions of that vast process by which the universe was redeemed 
and mankind are saved. 



TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. 323 

But there is a view of this subject which is more strictly 
theological. The necessity of the Lord's coming into the world 
to save sinners is seen in the necessity which man's fall created 
of revealing truth to his senses. This was stated in the third 
sermon of this series ; and also in the fifteenth. All that need 
be repeated here is, that it was necessary for Jehovah himself 
to assume a body and dwell among us as the divine truth made 
flesh, and in this body to speak to the ears, manifest a divine 
character to the eyes, and impart divine virtues to the very 
bodies of men. Thus men were approached by divine truth 
from without. For divine truth came down from the alpha to 
the omega of existence — from intimate principles to ultimate 
forms — and, through matter as the last plane, acted upon and 
imparted to the lower faculties of man a healing virtue. This 
was the external remedy which diseased human nature needed. 
But the health of the universe required an internal remedy 
also. For existence is sustained in created beings by a two- 
fold influx of life into them from the Divine Being, that is an 
influx immediately from himself, and an influx mediately 
through angels and spirits. Hence when Jehovah by coming 
down to earth had expelled infernal spirits from the bodies of 
men, and thus caused the mortified parts of the grand man to 
slough off, he at the same time caused u Satan to fall as light- 
ning from heaven;" then leaving the earth, and going up 
through the heavens, he healed the vital organs of the universal 
man, thus restored the equilibrium of its internal parts, and, 
hereby restoring the rational free agency of man upon earth, 
opened a way for universal and permanent salvation. 

All that is necessary for man to be saved is, therefore, to 
avail himself of the power which is continually sent down to 
enable him to put off the diseased forms which have been here- 
ditarily entailed upon him. In the degree that these are put off, 
together with the old natural will which produces and excites 
them, and a new spiritual will is formed by obedience to truth 
from the Word, a way is cleared for the Lord's second or spi- 
ritual advent. The Lord's first advent is by truth externally 
into the natural plane, or into the understanding ; and his second 



324 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR ? 

advent is by good internally into the spiritual plane, or into the 
will. 

In order to be saved, therefore, man must receive truth from 
the Word into a ground of vital faith, which is a practical prin- 
ciple, and, suffering his will to be determined by truth rationally 
considered, he must bring himself more and more into a state 
of thorough conformity to it, by exercising his powers as his 
oivn, and yet acknowledging that all his power is of God. For 
man's essential nature can never be changed without destroy- 
ing him as man. He must, therefore, ever be constituted so as 
to act in freedom according to reason. Life flowing into him 
must still appear to be in him as his own. And hence, though 
God in Christ Jesus has given man the power to will and to do 
of his good pleasure, by reconciling man's nature to the divine 
nature, and so opening a way for the divine influences to reach 
him, yet man must use his faculties as though they were his 
own, and must " work out his own salvation with fear and 
trembling." He must put forth his energies as a man, and not 
wait to be acted upon as a machine. By a power vouchsafed 
to him continually to act as of himself, he must stretch forth 
his withered hand, that the Lord may, by this very act, flow 
into him with fresh life from within and heal him. This is the 
only way that he can be made whole. And thus he must be 
saved by obeying, as a rational free agent, the dictates of divine 
love and wisdom. He, acting as of himself, yet believing that 
power is given to him by the Lord, must " wash him, make him 
clean, put away the evil of his doings from before the eyes of 
Jehovah, cease to do evil, learn to do well ; seek judgment, re- 
lieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." 

In short, man, acting in freedom according to reason, must 
" repent, and turn from his transgressions, so iniquity may not 
be his ruin." He must " cast, away from him all his trans- 
gressions whereby he has transgressed, and make him a new 
heart and a new spirit," whereby he may keep the first and 
great commandment, and the second, which is like unto it, on 
which hang all the Law and the Prophets, and in keeping which 
there is the great reward of the life that now is and that which 



TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKLVD. 325 

is to come. Yes, " if any man will enter into life, let him keep 
the commandments." The Great Physician has given this pre- 
scription — " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and 
" thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself — " This do, and 
live." And although this may be bitter physic, yet it must be 
taken. 

Love of self and the world, which comes from hell and leads 
to hell, and which is the cause of all diseased action in the 
limbs, organs or viscera of the universal man, must be denied 
and put off as a principle of action. Love of God and the 
neighbour must become the all-actuating principle. Then man 
will come from under the influence of hell, which is obstructing 
the divine influences and mortifying his immortal soul. Then 
the arteries of the divine life, again ramifying through him, 
will cause him to pulsate with heaven, and will impart to him 
its health, its happiness and its " joy unspeakable and full of 
glory." And then, though his sins " were as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow ; though they were red, like crimson, 
they shall be as wool." 

Thus, finally, there can be no doing of good without putting 
away evil — no regeneration without reformation — no salvation 
without redemption; and, consequently, no salvation of man 
without his ceasing to do evil. For man is spiritually lost by 
sin, which is the derangement and disease of his spiritual frame; 
and the only way to save him is to have all those things which 
" work abomination and make a lie" purged from his spiritual 
body " as with hyssop." " The blood is the life :" and that 
blood of man's spirit, which is inflamed and vitiated by in- 
fluences from hell, must be so altered in its quality as to cor- 
respond to the divine life flowing from within. The blood of 
self-love must be regenerated and become the blood of love to 
God. External truth from the Word (which is signified by 
hyssop) must be taken as medicine, and the morbid forms of 
man's depraved natural will must be corrected by " the leaves 
of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations." 
Nay, that will itself must, as an old man, be put off, and a new 

29 



326 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR? 

will, as a new man, must be put on. Thus sin, which obstructs 
man's salvation, must be removed by man's repentance unto 
reformation, and new life must be infused into him by obedience 
to the divine commandments. This is the way of salvation 
prescribed by the True and Good Physician, and they who 
prescribe any other way are spiritual quacks. 

Oh, then, "Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickedness that 
thou mayest be saved"! (Jer. iv. 14.) Trust not to those who 
are crying " Peace, peace, when there is no peace" — who, for 
fear of disturbing thee on thy death bed, would soothe thee 
with flattering representations of thy health, when thou art 
dying ! Oh rather listen to the still small voice of the spirit 
of truth, which, pointing to the way of reformation by the life 
of the commandments, says, "This is the way, walk ye in it." 
And be ye well assured, " If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall 
eat the good of the land. Rut if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall 
be devoured with the sword : for the mouth of the Lord hath 
spoken it"! 



SERMON XIX. 



JOHN, III. 5. 

" Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born 
of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 

These words suggest two topics of discourse: first, what is 
meant by being born of water and the spirit ; and, second, the 
impossibility of entering into the kingdom of God without this 
birth. 

Reserving the necessity of a new birth for another discourse, 
we shall, in this, first take a view of man's state before regenera- 
tion, in order that we may see more distinctly the nature of that 
change which regeneration effects ; and then consider the 
means by which this change is wrought; which will lead us to 
unfold the scriptural meaning of the being born of water and 
the spirit. 

Paul says that is first which is natural, and afterwards that 
which is spiritual. This, as it regards man, is a universal 
truth. In general, then, regeneration is the bringing us from 
a natural into a spiritual state. 

But what is radically and distinctively our state by nature ? 
It is all-important that we should have right ideas on this point. 
For according to our views of this will be our views of religion, 
and the change which religion effects. And hence if our views 
on this point are erroneous, our religion will be false, and we 
shall stop short of that change which is indispensable to our 
salvation. 

It is very generally thought that our state by nature is de- 
praved. Tt is admitted that we are fallen creatures ; that we 
are prone to evil and this continually ; that " the whole head is 



328 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

sick, and the whole heart faint;" that "the heart is deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked ; but, in the minds of 
most people, the conception of this scriptural truth amounts to 
nothing more than a general and vague impression that we are 
evil, without distinctly knowing in what this evil consists. It 
is true we can discern that we are by nature inclined to anger, 
hatred, malice, revenge, cruelty, unkindness, and many other 
evil feelings; and that we are continually prone to give vent to 
these feelings, and to adopt and maintain those false maxims 
which justify or palliate their indulgence. But these evil feel- 
ings, maxims and acts are only effects of a cause, with which 
many seem not to be acquainted. And as these effects may 
be restrained and modified by even the cause from which they 
proceed ; hence many people rest satisfied with an alteration of 
the effects, without an alteration or removal of the cause. The 
cause is in the ruling love, and the effects are in the affections 
and thoughts, or the motives and maxims, which proceed from 
this love and determine themselves in act. 

Man's ruling love forms his life ; and the destruction of the 
life is the destruction of the love itself. Hence, when the pas- 
sions and principles which proceed from the love, would, in 
their unrestrained indulgence, destroy its life, the love prevents 
them from coming into act, and assumes an orderly and decent 
exterior, in order to prevent its own destruction. For example : 
suppose a man is governed by a covetous love, which prompts 
to the aggrandizing oneself at the expense of others. If this 
love met with no restraints, it would urge him to take, without 
leave, and even with violence, whatever he wanted. He would 
overreach his neighbour whenever he could : and when he 
could not do this, he would rob and plunder him without mercy. 
But the general consequences of such conduct as this would de- 
stroy society ; and hence men have agreed together to enact 
laws, with penalties annexed, by which the aggressions of any 
one upon the others are restrained. And now any one who 
should indulge the direct inclinations of such a love, would not 
only incur the penalty of the law, but also the loss of reputa- 
tion, and of gain, which would defeat the attainment of his 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 329 

objects. In order to attain its ends, therefore, this love 
prompts him to avoid an open course of villainy, and to assume 
the character and conduct of an honest man : and when, by 
this means, he has gained the confidence of his neighbours, it 
prompts him, under the garb of fair pretences, to cheat them, 
whenever he can do so without detection. Thus his love re- 
strains its own passions and principles, and assumes a fair 
exterior, that it may attain its ends, and continue in the enjoy- 
ment of its delights. So in the case of any other predominating 
love. 

It is in this way that people may undergo an exterior reli- 
gious change, while the love from which their previous course 
of conduct proceeded, is unremoved. 

Now, as the love is the cause of all that proceeds from it, 
and constitutes the life of man, the love is the essential man. 
Hence whatever is the quality of his love, that is his quality. 
In order, therefore, to ascertain what is radically and distinc- 
tively man's state by nature, we must ascertain what is the all- 
prevailing or general love by which he is naturally actuated. 
In other words, what is the love into which man is born? 

Is not man's natural love the love of self? Is not the 
gratification of oneself, or a regard to one's own interest, the 
ruling end of life with the natural man? This is a question 
for our own consciousness to decide. Experience and observa- 
tion can better determine the matter than argument. It is a 
matter of fact ; and all matters of fact must be ascertained, not 
by reasoning, but by observation and experience. For all 
science is founded upon matters of fact, or the knowledges of 
truth ; from which knowledges we, by reasoning, deduce the 
general and doctrinal principles of the science. And this, 
therefore, must be the mode of proceeding in the science of 
theology. In the present case, therefore, we must ascertain 
the matter of fact. Appealing, then, to observation and expe- 
rience, I ask is it not the character of the mere natural man, 
from the cradle to the grave, to love himself above all things? 
Do not all things with him begin and end in self ? Does he not 
love the world — does he not seek money and wealth, for the sake 
29* 



330 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

of self-gratification ? Does he not seek office, and every kind 
of honour and distinction merely for the sake of self? Your 
experience and observation differ very widely from mine, if they 
do not bear me out in the assertion that it is the radical charac- 
teristic of the mere natural man to love himself above all things, 
and the world for the sake of himself. The love of self, then, is 
the general and all-predominating love in the natural mind. 
This is the progenitor of every ruling natural passion. From 
this, for instance, proceeds covetousness. For we first set about 
acquiring property on account of the power, influence and re- 
spectability which it gives to self; and we become insatiable in 
this acquisition, because the more property we have, the more 
consequence or gratification we imagine it gives to self. In the 
same way it may be seen that from the love of self proceeds 
ambition. For ambition is another term for the desire of rule 
and domination, which are the subjection of others to self. 
And the root of such desire manifestly can only be a supreme 
regard to self, which is self-love. And so of every other 
ruling passion of the natural mind. From this, too, arise envy, 
hatred, anger, malice, revenge, and ill will of every kind ; and 
from these aggression, war, murder, bloodshed, rapine and every 
species of violence. For it is the nature of self-love to desire 
to bring all things into subjection to itself; since, in the degree 
that they are in subjection to it, they minister to its gratification : 
and whatsoever resists it, and thus does not minister to its grati- 
fication, this it hates and endeavours to force into its measures, 
or to destroy. But as self-love predominates in all, it hence 
produces in each the same desire of a subjection of all the rest 
to itself; and, consequently, there must be in every form of 
self a tendency to resist the efforts of any other form of self to 
bring it into subjection, and thus there must be, in the nature 
of things, that opposition, resistance and confliction w 7 hich 
result in the above named, and all other, evil passions, and 
their bad consequences. 

Thus self-love is the source of all evil. And it is because 
man is born with this disposition to love himself supremely, 
that he is said to be born in evil. It is because all his thoughts, 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW EIRTH. 331 

and affections, all his principles of action, and rules for the re- 
gulation of his conduct flow from the love of self, and because 
all the ends which he proposes to himself in doing what is good 
and refraining from what is evil, have respect solely to self, 
that it is said his " whole head is sick and his whole heart is 
faint." This, then, is man's natural state. And this, therefore, 
is the state out of which he is to be brought by regeneration. 

Let us now see how this is effected. The text informs us 
that we must be born of water and the spirit. What, then, are 
we to understand by being born of w at er and of the spirit? 

In the passage before us, water signifies truth ; or it signifies 
those doctrinal precepts from the Word of God by which our 
minds are informed in relation to the being of a God, to a fu- 
ture state of existence, to our own fallen nature in the present 
state, and to the way of salvation. And when we hear, under- 
stand and embrace these doctrinal truths, so as to renounce the 
false and evil principles, or the selfish and worldly motives and 
maxims, by which we are actuated in our natural state, a 
change takes place in the quality and character of our minds, 
which is the being born of water. 

We will not now detain you by proving at length from the 
Word that the spiritual signification of water is truth. It will 
be sufficient to show this is the Lord's meaning in the text. 
There can be no doubt that these words of the Lord have a 
spiritual signification : for he elsewhere says, (John, vi. 63,) 
" The words that I speak unto you, are spirit and are life." 
This is true of all his words ; consequently of the words of the 
text. Therefore, water in the text means spiritual water. 
And hence there can be no question that the Lord, by the birth 
of water, means spiritual cleansing; which is a removal of what 
is evil and false from the mind. Hence he says, in Isaiah, i. 16, 
" Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings 
from before mine eyes, cease to do evil." And in Jeremiah, 
iv. 14, u O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that 
thou mayest be saved : how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge 
within thee ?" Here salvation is the effect of washing the heart 



832 TRUE NATURE OF TH£ NEW BIRTH. 

from wickedness, and removing vain thoughts from the mind. 
And salvation and being born again are one and the same. 

Thus it is evident that by being born of water the Lord 
means the spiritual process of removing from the mind what is 
evil and false, and not a submission to the mere ceremonial rite 
of baptism, or a mere exercise of faith in his merits, or a mere 
feeling of confidence in his mercy. Such things may be ex- 
perienced, and should be attended to, but they are of no avail 
without the weightier matters of self-renunciation, and the de- 
parting from all iniquity. The cleansing to which the Lord 
refers is a washing from the uncleanness of our spirit, a wash- 
ing from our sins. Hence the devout Ananias said to Saul, 
" And now why tarriest thou ? arise, and be baptized, and wash 
away thy sins." (Acts, xxii. 16.) And Paul himself says, 
(Titus, iii. 5,) " he saved us by the washing of regeneration." 
And James says, (iv. 8,) " Cleanse your hands, ye sinners ; 
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded." And John, (i. 9,) 
" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us 
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 

Thus, then, there can be no question that the being born of 
water means spiritual cleansing. The only question can be, 
how this cleansing is effected. We maintain that it is effected 
by instructions from the Word ; and hence that the Lord means, 
by the being born of water, that change which is wrought in 
the state of the mind by the reception and practical acknow- 
ledgment of his doctrinal precepts. 

That the Lord's Word is the instrument of our spiritual 
cleansing, is evident from what he says, (John, xv. 7,) " Now 
ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you :" 
and (xvii. 17,) " Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word 
is truth." Here you see sane tin* cation, which is evidently 
spiritual cleansing, is effected by truth from the Word : that is, 
we are made clean by what the Lord teaches in his W T ord : thus 
we are made clean by his doctrinal precepts. 

This is confirmed by Paul in Ephesians, v. 26, where he 
says, " Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he 
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 333 

Word." Now with those who allow Paul's authority, this 
should settle the matter. What is true of the church is true of 
the individuals that compose it. If the church, then, is cleansed 
with the washing of water by the Word, so are individuals. 
Hence, according to Paul, we are cleansed with the washing of 
water by the Word. This shows us, moreover, the meaning 
of water in the text, namely, truth from the Word. And also 
shows us how we are born of this water, namely, by the being 
cleansed from our evil and false principles with the washing of 
this truth, that is, by that change which is wrought in the 
quality of our minds by the reception and practical acknow- 
ledgment of this truth. But how can this truth be received, 
and a change be effected by it, unless by gradual and long-con- 
tinued instructions from the Word ? The being born of water, 
then, is that change which takes place in the character of our 
spirit, that is, of our will and our understanding, by the recep- 
tion and practical adoption of regular instructions from the 
Word of God. Consequently, regeneration by water does not 
consist in a ceremonial ablution with consecrated material 
water; nor in an intellectual assent to a creed or confession of 
faith ; nor in any instantaneous emotion of the heart or ebulli- 
tion of animal feeling. 

We are now, in the second place, to determine what is meant 
by being born of the spirit. Having so fully shown, in the 
second and fourth sermons of this series, what is meant in the 
Sacred Scriptures by this term, we need only say here, that 
whatever proceeds from man's love, or the inmost principles of 
his life, is called his spirit. Hence, the life of a man is his 
spirit ; because the life proceeds from, and outwardly manifests, 
his love. Literally, then, by being born of the spirit, is meant 
being born of the life. And we are born of the life when the 
inmost principles which actuate us are brought into our life ; 
that is, are manifested in our conduct. Taking, therefore, the 
term spirit in its present connection ; that is, in connection with 
the term water ; the being born of the spirit means a change 
in our life and conversation corresponding to the interior change 
which has taken place in our maxims and motives. 



334 TROE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH* 

Since, then, water signifies truths from the Word, spirit sig^ 
nifies a life according to these truths. And hence the being 
born of water and the spirit signifies regeneration by truths from 
the Word, and by a life according to them. 

To sum up all in a few words, the truths of God's word are first 
received into man's understanding : that is, man acquires the 
knowledge of truths by reading the Word, and by listening to 
preachings from the Word. And by faith in these truths, he men- 
tally adopts them as principles of action. When these truths are 
thus known, understood and adopted, they produce a change in 
the intellectual form of the mind, by removing the false and 
evil principles which previously predominated there : and this 
change is the being born of water. Afterwards, when these 
truths, as convictions of man's understanding, act upon his 
will, and remove from his conduct all false and evil practices* 
there results a change in the form of his love and consequent 
life : and this change is the being born of the spirit. 

But there is a more specific meaning to this text. Water, in 
the Word, signifies natural truth, (see Sermon II, p. 43,) and the 
spirit signifies spiritual truth. Natural truth, is truth as appre- 
hended by the senses, and by the mind's mere natural faculties. 
And as the Word in the letter is written according to the ap- 
pearances of things in the natural mind, hence water signifies 
truth in the mere letter of the Word: and, therefore, to be born 
of water denotes the having our lives determined and regulated 
by truth drawn from the W T ord in only its literal or natural 
sense. But as the spirit signifies the spiritual sense of the 
Word, hence, to be bom of the spirit denotes the having our 
lives determined and regulated by the truths of the Word in its 
spiritual sense. 

To meet the states of all minds, we may now more plainly 
illustrate the subject before us, by attending somewhat more 
specifically to the human constitution. 

There are two parts in man, an internal and an external. 
The internal consists of the love, with the secret purposes, in- 
tentions and thoughts which flow from it. In this internal 
reside all man's ends of action — the principles which govern. 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 335 

him, and determine him to any course of conduct. Man is 
conscious of this internal when he is in secret, and thinks with 
himself. The external of man consists of his actions, and the 
thoughts and affections which are in immediate connection with 
and produce his actions. It consists of his external memory, 
and all those maxims, sayings and matters of fact which he 
learns from persons and things around him, and which he talks 
of, and acts out, in the presence of those with whom he has 
intercourse. That man has this external distinct from his 
internal, any one may know by reflecting that a person 
may talk and act one way with another, while he thinks and 
feels directly opposite in his heart : as is the case with hypo- 
crites and dissemblers. Thus a man may profess to be your 
friend, and treat you with every kindness, while he has secret 
designs of defrauding and injuring you. The spy, when he 
goes to discover the strength and position of a hostile army, 
acts the deserter by virtue of his external, while with his inter- 
nal he makes the requisite observations of the enemy's posts. 
These examples are given that you may see distinctly that 
there are an external and an internal in man, and that you 
may have a clear idea of the manner in which they are 
distinct. 

Now the external is determined and governed by the internal. 
And hence the character of the external is altogether such as 
is the quality of the internal. Thus though the external be 
ever so fair and honest to appearance, it is really bad, when 
the internal from which it proceeds is bad. Though a person 
be in the highest degree moral in his conduct, honest and up- 
right in his dealings, kind and obliging in his deportment, or 
polite and elegant in his manners, he is no more a good man, 
if his secret purposes are evil, than brass is gold because it re- 
sembles it in its external form. Hence the internal is the real 
man. And when the internal is changed, the whole man is 
changed. Any alteration, which takes place in the external, 
that does not proceed from a radical change of the internal, is 
no change of the man. He only puts on a new coat. It is the 
same man in another dress. But when the internal is changed. 



330 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

the external, proceeding as it does from it, must be changed of 
course; and thus the whole man is changed. This is the rea- 
son that the Lord commanded the Jews to cleanse the inside 
of the cup and platter that the outside might be clean also. 
(Matt, xxiii. 26.) 

Now the inside is cleansed by the reception of truth into the 
love, or into the secret purposes, intentions and thoughts which 
flow from it — which is effected, in the first place, by knowing, 
understanding and practising the doctrinal precepts of the Lord 
in the letter of the Word. So far as man practises the truths of 
the Word in its letter, his internal mind is opened. For the 
Lord's precepts in the letter, when practised, cause the sub- 
sidence of natural loves ; and then the Lord can flow in with 
spiritual loves — such as the love of truth, and the love of good 
for their own sakes : and when these loves are active, the 
spiritual mind is opened, and receives light from heaven, so as 
to see truth of a spiritual degree in the Word, shining in its 
letter like glory in a translucent cloud. And then from the 
love of the good to which truth leads, the spiritual truths of the 
Word are brought into ultimate life. First natural truth from 
the Word is received into man's inner thought, conviction, ac- 
knowledgment and intention. But from thence it must descend, 
so as to alter correspondently the external character. It is neces- 
sary that change of intention should produce change of conduct. 
It is necessary that knowledge of duty should become perform- 
ance of duty. It is necessary that man should remove from his 
life and conversation whatever truth in his understanding points 
out therein as wrong : and from the ivill of good in his internal 
should do good in his external. For goodness and truth, or 
charity and faith, are ideal and evanescent until they are de- 
termined to act or brought into works. But when charity and 
faith are in works, then they are full and complete ; and the 
man is every whit whole. Thus the internal is regenerated 
first, and by it the external. When truth from the letter of the 
Word is thus received in the internal and brought forth into the 
external, then man is born of water. This birth of water opens 
the internal mind to perceive the Word in its spiritual sense. 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 337 

Then the truths of this sense, having become acknowledged in 
the will, descend through a clear rational intellection of them 
into ultimate life ; and thus man is born of the spirit. 

This reformation of the external by the principles of good- 
ness and truth, or charity and faith, in the internal, is repre- 
sented by the Lord's washing his disciples' feet. For the Lord 
is the Word. And therefore he is in the principles of goodness 
and truth from the Word. When, then, these principles, re- 
ceived into the internal of man, change that internal, and lead 
him to regulate his outward conduct by them, his external, to 
which his feet correspond, is cleansed by principles proceeding 
from the Lord. And thus it is that the Lord is said to cleanse 
or wash his feet. And as the cleansing of the external implies, 
because it is the effect of, the previous purification of the inter- 
nal, and thus the entire man is clean when the external is 
clean, hence the Lord said to Simon Peter, " He that is washed, 
needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit." 
(John, xiii. 10.) 

When man, from the love of what is good and true in his 
internal, does what is good and true in his external, and thus 
every part of him becomes conformed to goodness and truth as 
contained in both the letter and the spirit of the Word, he is 
born of water and the spirit, and his regeneration is complete. 

It is said, when man, does all this ; but it is to be understood 
that he does it from the Lord's operation in and by him. For 
the Lord fights for him in temptation, overcomes the powers of 
hell which infuse into him evil loves — thus removes from him 
evil loves, and flows into his internal with that love of goodness 
and truth, which is the cause of all his virtuous activity. 
Thus the Lord washes " not his feet only, but also his hands 
and his head" (John, xiii. 9.) 

Now from what has been advanced it conclusively follows, 
that the love of man is really the man himself. Hence, unless 
his love is altered, he remains essentially unchanged. Conse- 
quently, the new birth truly consists in the changing of man's 
love. And as regeneration is bringing him out of a natural 
into a spiritual state, it is the bringing him out of a natural into 

30 



338 TRUE MATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

a spiritual love. The love into which man is born is, asr we> 
have seen, the love of self and the world. This, therefore, is 
the natural love out of which man is to be brought by regene- 
ration. And man must be born again of water and the spirit : 
that is, by the truths of God's Word and a life according to them. 
But all of the Law and the Prophets — thus the whole Word — 
hangs upon one precept, " thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and' 
thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The love of God 
and our neighbour, then, is the fulfilling of the whole law; and 
is, therefore, the sum and substance of religion. This is the true 
spiritual love into which man must be brought by regeneration. 
Hence, the true new birth is that spiritual process by which man 
is brought out of the love of self into the love of God, and from 
the love of the world into the love of his neighbour. And the 
way to have this effected, is for him, as of himself, yet looking 
to the Lord, to "cease to do evil, and learn to do well." For 
then, though u his sins were as scarlet, they become white as 
snow, though they were red like crimson, they become as wool." 

Thus the all -important work which man has to do, is to " deny 
himself, take up his cross daily, and follow the Lord in the 
regeneration." Any change of character short of entire self- 
renunciation, will be of no avail; and any hope of heaven other 
than that which consists in the delights of the life of supreme 
love to God and the neighbour, or the delight of doing what is 
good and true for its own sake — is delusion. 

John says, " Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin." 
Some may interpret this to mean, that when a man has the 
righteousness of Christ imputed to him by faith, whatever he 
may do is not considered as sin. But this passage really means 
that he who is born of God renounces sin. In other words, it 
means that the first stage of the process by which he is born 
of God is the renunciation of sin, or repentance ; which is ne- 
cessary as a preparatory step, and leads to a subsequent actual 
conformity to the Lord's commandments. And as if for the 
very purpose of gainsaying the false doctrines which might be 
deduced from the form of this clause, John afterwards varies 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 331) 

the mode of expression, and says, " whosoever doth not 
righteousness is not of God." You will observe that in the pre- 
vious clause he had said, negatively, he that is born of God 
doth not commit sin. Here he says, affirmatively, he that doth 
not do righteousness is not of God : thus showing conclusively 
that the new birth of man consists, not in the imputation to him of 
a righteousness wrought out for him by another, but in his ac- 
tually doing righteousness himself — that it does not consist 
merely in a pardon of his sins, and the not considering his 
conduct sinful because he believes and trusts in the merits of 
another who has made an infinite atonement for those sins, but 
in his actually ceasing to commit sin himself. 

By these two passages John also shows, that regeneration is 
not only a negative desisting from sin, but also a positive doing 
of good — that it consists not only in ceasing to do evil, but also 
in learning to do well. Thus you see John supports our posi- 
tion that man is born again by coming out of self-love, which 
he does by renouncing the evils that flow from self-love ; and 
by coming into the love of God, which he does by keeping the 
commandments of God. 

John also shows that we are born again by coming into 
brotherly love ; which makes one with love to God ; for it is 
the manifestation of love to God by doing good to one another. 
Hence he says, " Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of 
God — neither he that loveth not his brother." And again, 
" whosoever doth not righteousness, is not of God ;" — " whoso- 
ever hateth his brother is a murderer : and ye know that no 
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive 
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us : and 
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Now all of 
us cannot lay down our bodily lives for the brethren. In what 
sense then can we lay down our lives for them, if it is not by 
renouncing our selfish and worldly feelings and principles of 
action, which are distinctively our lives, and acting towards 
them in all things from a principle of justice and judgment, 
from a regard to what is good and true in itself considered, 
without any design of making them subservient to our selfish 



340 TRUE NATURE OF THE NKW BIRTH. 

or worldly purposes, and thus from the pure love of God, or 
the Lord's life, shed abroad in our hearts ? For again he says, 
"But whoso hath thisworld's good, and seeth his brother have 
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how 
dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children let us 
not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" — 
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and 
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He 
that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love." Now it is 
manifest that the love of God, that is the love which belongs to 
God — which is in God or which is God, and which is of God 
in us, is not a matter of feeling, but a desire and effort to do 
good. Hence by this love John did not mean a mere animal 
feeling — a mere leaping of our bodily heart — an enthusiastic 
and violent emotion of the mind accompanied by some vehe- 
ment gesture of the body, but a cool, deliberate principle of action 
— a full and fixed purpose of the mind— -a persevering intention 
of the will, to do good to our fellow-men ; which leads us to 
act towards them in all circumstances according to the dictates of 
an understanding enlightened by the truths of God's Word. 
For he expressly says, " this is the love of God, that we keep 
his commandments." Here he evidently shows that the love 
to which he alludes, is a principle of action, a matter of life, 
a steady, unwavering and long-continued course of conduct ; 
and not a sudden emotion of the heart, or an instantaneous 
change of feeling. There may be, and we have no doubt there 
often is, a sudden change of feeling, which leads ultimately to 
this permanent change of purpose and actual conformity to 
God's commandments; but this matter of feeling is not what 
John means by the love of God. It is evidently, as we have 
said, a settled purpose of the soul, which leads man to desist 
from whatever God's commandments say we shall not do, and 
to do whatever God's commandments say we shall do. It is 
that love which Paul calls the fulfilling of the law. " Owe no 
man any thing," says he, " but to love one another : for he that 
loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not 
commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. §41 

shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet : and if there 
be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this 
saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour : therefore, love is the 
fulfilling of the law." 

Thus, then, the new birth is that spiritual change in which 
we renounce all the evils of self-love, and continually act from 
a principle of love to God and our neighbour. It is a change 
of the love and the life ; and if we rest in any other change 
than this, we shall stop short of heaven. 

Any, therefore, who have experienced merely an external 
change of character — who have conformed, and are conform- 
ing with ever so much exactness, to the rites and ceremonies of 
the church, or are yielding assent to the most perfect forms of 
faith, while they are still selfish in their hearts and principles 
of conduct, are really not born again. And while they are 
confiding in a vicarious sacrifice and an imputed righteousness, 
wrought out of and independently of them, without that per- 
sonal holiness which results from the sacrifice of self with all 
its evil loves and practices, and a faithful conformity to God's 
commandments, they are trusting to a broken reed, and are 
" crying peace, peace, when there is no peace !" 

How many people, in the present day, make religion to con- 
sist solely in going to meeting, praying, singing, or certain en- 
thusiastic acts of devotion, without any strict regard to the 
motives and principles of action which govern them in their 
daily walks of life. Yet how futile is such a religion ! From 
what has been now shown, it is clear that a man's natural loves 
or ends of life may remain all unchanged, while his external 
character is completely altered. Hence the religion which con- 
sists merely in such an external alteration of character is likely 
to be very extensively embraced by natural men, who like to 
be lulled with the hope of getting to heaven without the renun- 
ciation of selfish and worldly principles. 

Men are very apt to believe what they love. Hence it is 
that " the generality of people at this day believe they shall 
get to heaven solely by attending churches, and by adorations 

30* 



342 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

and prayers:" for all this is compatible with unchanged na- 
tural loves. Attendance at church, and a due regard for the 
proper ceremonials of religious worship, are high and important 
duties, which, by all means, should be attended to in their sea- 
son. But they do not make up the whole of religion. Nay, 
they may be scrupulously attended to with an utter destitution 
of all true religion. All true religion has relation to life. Life 
according to the doctrines of a true faith, or the life of charity 
— in which a man acts invariably from justice and judgment 
in the various duties of common life — is the essential worship 
of God. The several acts of religious veneration before men- 
tioned, constitute the life of piety, in contradistinction to this 
life of charity, and are formal worship, which is of no avail to 
salvation unless essential worship be in it. Hence it is evident 
that such Christians as imagine that they are going to be saved 
by a mere confession of faith, by worshiping God in temples, 
by partaking of the sacraments of the church, or by any or all 
of the acts of a merely pious life, are deluded. For is it not 
perfectly clear, from what has been shown, " that such of them 
as have no concern about the knowledges of truth and good 
from the Word, and who neglect to imbue not only the memory, 
but also the life therewith, remain natural as before? They 
certainly do not become spiritual, inasmuch as their external 
professions and religious acts do not proceed from their spirits, 
thus, from a spiritual origin : for their spiritual mind is not 
formed by the knowledge and love of spiritual things, and by 
a life according to them, but is void of any internal principles 
of goodness and truth ; and worship which proceeds from a 
mind thus void, is only a natural gesture, entirely destitute of 
spirituality. If such persons, as to moral and civil life, are 
insincere and unjust, then their worship, adorations and pray- 
ers have inwardly such a quality as repels heaven from them, 
instead of bringing them into heaven as they suppose. For 
their worship is like a garment enveloping a diseased body, or 
a 'whited sepulchre, which indeed appears beautiful outwardly > 
but within is full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.' 
< c Very different is it, however, with the holy worship, the 



TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 343 

adorations and prayers of those who are in the knowledge of 
truth and good, and in a life according to it. With such per- 
sons those things are pleasing to the Lord ; for they are the 
effect of their spirit in their body, or the effect of their faith 
and love ; and thus are not only natural gestures, but spiritual 
acts." (Ap. Ex. 126.) 

Let us, then, guard against delusion in this matter. Let us 
deeply and solemnly reflect, that however exact we may be in 
our religious observances, however fervent in our prayers, how- 
ever enthusiastic in our feelings, and however vehement in our 
devotional gestures; we have not a spark of true religion while 
we are governed by self-love and love of the world in our daily 
walk and conversation. Oh let us not mistake passion for 
principle ! — mere natural feeling for true spiritual-mindedness ! 
With the Word of God, spiritually understood, as the man of 
our counsel and the guide of our life, let us, as we hope for 
salvation, renounce self and the world ; and perform faithfully 
ail our individual and relative duties — as well as our peculiar 
religious exercises — from a supreme regard to the glory of our 
God in the good of our fellow-men ! Let this be the all-actuat- 
ing and all-governing principle of our souls ; and the life that 
flows from this, our religion ! " If any man will enter into life, 
let him keep the commandments." 



SERMON XX, 

JOHN, III. 7; 
" Ye must be born again. " 

In the last discourse we considered the true nature of the 
new birth. The present text will lead us to consider its neces- 
sity. Two principal topics of discourse are suggested by the 
manner in which the emphasis is laid in reading this sentence. 
Ye must be born again, suggests the necessity of the new birth ; 
and ye must be born again, would lead us to reflect upon the 
gradual and progressive nature of that change. These two 
topics we intend to make the principal heads of discussion in 
this sermon. 

But before we proceed to this discussion, we will premise, 
that by laying the emphasis on the last word of our text, we 
bring into relief the source from whence the new birth is ef- 
fected. The original word which our english version renders 
again in this clause, is iLvaQev. This greek word does some- 
times signify again, but it most commonly means from above. 
The word again so far as it implies the spirituality of the new 
birth, involves the same idea ; because the spirituality of the 
second birth consists in its coming from above ; for the natural 
man, or the natural plane of the mind, is quickened, thus made 
alive, by influx from the Lord through the spiritual plane, 
which is above or within the natural plane. Therefore we say, 
so far as the english word again implies the spirituality of the 
new birth, it involves the idea of from above : but as again, in 
the english idiom, implies repetition simply, it does not ade- 
quately express the sense of the original word uvafav. This is 
the same word which is rendered from above in the thirty-first 



SOURCE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 345 

verse, " He that cometh from above, is above all:" and it is 
evidently proper to give the same rendering to this word in our 
text. Hence if we read, Ye must be born from above — we 
have it indicated, that the true new birth comes from the Lord, 
because he " cometh from above, and is above all." 

It is not, then, by any merit in ourselves — by any truth 
which we can devise, or by any good which we can of our- 
selves do — that we can be regenerated. Neither self-derived 
learning, refinement, morality or elegance of manners — neither 
our amiableness of disposition, nor any or all of our merely 
natural good qualities, can avail to our salvation : for " not by 
works of righteousness which we have done, but by the washing 
of regeneration and renewing of the holy spirit, doth God our 
Saviour save us." "All flesh is grass; the goodliness thereof 
is as the flower of the field : the grass withereth, the flower 
fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth on it : surely the 
people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth : but 
the Word of our God will stand forever." (Isa. xl. 6, 8.) The 
truths of the Word, received in faith and practised with an end 
to God and the neighbour, will alone produce that change in us 
which will fit us for, and bring us into, heaven. We must 
thus be born from above. We must go to the Lord Jesus that 
we may have life. " For no man hath ascended up to heaven 
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, 
which is in heaven." Hence, if we go to heaven we must be 
carried thither by him who came down from thence. He 
" being formed in us," must renew our minds, and transform 
our vile bodies into the fashion of his glorious body, so as to 
elevate our spirits from a carnal to a spiritual quality, and from 
an earthly to a heavenly state. 

" That which is born of the flesh, is flesh; and that which is 
born of the spirit, is spirit." All that comes from self, goes to 
self — " dust to dust ; but the spirit to God who gave it." That 
only can go to God which comes from him. " The things of 
God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God:" but they who 
11 have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of 
God," are able to " know the things that are freely given to us 



346 SOURCE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

of God." Hence, if we ever go to God, or to heaven, we must 
be carried thither by that which comes down from thence, 
namely, the spirit of God, which the Lord Jesus sends to us in 
his father's name. 

That we may be the subjects of spiritual life, our actions 
must spring from an ultimate end to God and our neighbour ; 
for this alone is the true spiritual principle of action. This is 
that law of love which worketh no ill to the neighbour; and in 
the keeping of which law, or in the godliness that results from 
the keeping of it, there is the " promise of the life that now is, 
and of that which is to come." But who is of himself sufficient 
unto this ? No one can of himself live the life of so pure a love. 
The Lord expressly says " without me ye can do nothing." 
And the apostle declares, " I can do all things through Christ 
who strengthened me." Hence our power to live the life of 
love to God comes only from Christ our Lord and Master. 

The flesh is the natural man — the ends, the motives and the 
reasonings of the natural mind. It is that mind which a man 
receives by birth and education in this world. In its utmost 
perfection it is but love of self and love of the world enlightened 
and refined by the light of nature : and, in a distinctive refer- 
ence to the church, it is the religious character as formed by a 
natural interpretation of the mere letter of the Word, without 
any spiritual sense within it. It is that natural man which 
Paul says " receiveth not the things of the spirit of God," and 
which " cannot know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned." Hence, that which proceeds from the natural mind 
is still natural: consequently, the religion which a man pro- 
fesses, and to the requisitions of which he renders the most 
rigid external conformity, is still a natural religion while the 
man's ends of life are natural. However spiritual the religion 
may be in itself, or in its divine source, it is notwithstanding 
natural in such a man. That which is born of the flesh, is still 
flesh, and nothing but flesh. It is impossible for a natural af- 
fection to generate a spiritual affection, or for a natural thought 
to generate a spiritual thought : for all that is born of the flesh 
is flesh. Spiritual thoughts and affections can proceed only 



NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 347 

from that which is spiritual : for that only " which is born of 
the spirit, is spirit ;" and " the spirit is truth ;" and the Lord 
is " the way, the truth, and the life." Therefore, spiritual 
thoughts and affections can proceed from the Lord alone. 
And, consequently, if we are ever born of the spirit, it must be 
from the Lord — thus from above. 

Having seen the source from whence the new birth springs, 
we may now proceed to discuss the especial topics of this dis- 
course. And first as to the necessity of the new birth. 

" Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom 
of God." The Lord Jesus says, (John, xviii. 36,) " My king- 
dom is not of this world." And it is said of him by John, (i. 
10,) " He was in the world, and the world was made by him, 
and the world knew him not." Again Jesus says, (John, vii. 
7,) M The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I 
testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." And (xv. 18, 
19,) " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before 
it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love 
his own : but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen 
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And, 
(xvii. 16,) speaking still of his disciples, he says, " They are 
not of the world, even as 1 am not of the world." 

From these passages it is clear that there is a contrariety 
between man, in his natural state, and the Lord. For by the 
world in these passages is evidently meant the mass of men in 
their natural state, who, while in that state, are actuated by a 
regard to the world — its wealth, its power, its honour and its 
glory. And by the kingdom of the Lord is meant his church 
on earth and in the heavens. His kingdom is a spiritual king- 
dom ; a kingdom which rules in and over the spirits of men — 
which forms their understandings and creates their wills — cor- 
rects their thoughts and purifies their affections. His kingdom 
is the dominion of spiritual truth, and the righteousness which 
results from the love and practice of that truth. And it is be- 
cause the world is actuated by principles contrary to spiritual 
truth and righteousness, that it hates the Lord. 

Like loves like — the world loves its own. Opposites hate and 



348 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

shun each other. The Lord's kingdom is not of this world ; 
therefore this world hates it. The Lord " desires truth in the 
inward parts," (Ps. li. 6 ;) but the inward parts of the mere na- 
tural man " are very wickedness." (Ps. v. 9.) The Psalmist 
says of the Lord, "thou are not a God that hath pleasure in 
wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee,' (Ps. v. 4;) 
and the Prophet, (Hab. i. 13,) " Thou art of purer eyes than to 
behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity :" but " God saw 
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that 
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
continually," (Gen. vi. 5:) and " the Lord looked down from 
heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that 
did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they 
are altogether become filthy; there is none that doth good, no 
not one." (Ps. xiv. 2, 3.) Not that men are not " clean in their 
own eyes," and " wise in their own conceits ;" but their " righ- 
teousness is as filthy rags," and their " wisdom is foolishness 
with God." " The thoughts of God are not our thoughts, nor 
his ways our ways." " All we, like sheep, have gone astray ; 
we have turned every one to his own way." (Isa. liii. 6.) And 
now, when the truth comes and points out our state, we will 
not come to the light lest our deeds should be reproved — we 
hate the light, because our deeds are not wrought in God. 
"This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; 
but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds 
are evil." 

Thus, by nature, we are in a state of contrariety to God. 
We are in a state of rebellion against him. Hence Paul says, 
" the carnal mind is enmity against God ; for it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom. viii. 7.) And 
James says, (iv. 4,) " the friendship of the world is enmity 
with God — whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world, 
is the enemy of God." While, then, we are in the world, that 
is, while we are in and governed by the principles which 
govern the world — thus, while we are in our natural state, we 
are the enemies of God — our minds are not subject to the law 
of God, and cannot be. How clear is it, then, that, if we ever 



NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 349 

become the friends of God, if we are ever made the happy sub- 
jects of his kingdom, we must undergo a change. A new birth, 
therefore, is necessary. 

The ground and reason of the necessity of a new birth are, 
that heaven is spiritual, and man is born natural. " God is a 
spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit 
and in truth." (John, iv. 24.) Now it is manifest that heaven 
is where God is. As, then, God is a spirit, and they that wor- 
ship him, worship him in spirit, it is evident that they who are 
in heaven are in a spiritual state — thus that heaven is spiritual. 
And that man is not born spiritual every one knows and can- 
not but admit. " It is written, The first man Adam was made 
a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is 
natural ; and afterwards that which is spiritual. The first man 
is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord from hea- 
ven." (1 Cor. xv. 45 — 47.) Hence, in order that man may 
come into heaven, he must from natural become spiritual. 

In order to see the necessity of a new birth on the ground 
and reason here stated, we have need to know, and reflect upon, 
the nature of decrees. For " the knowledge of degrees is as a 
key to open the causes of things and to enter into them. The 
interior things which lie hid in both the natural and the spiritual 
worlds can by no means be disclosed, unless degrees be known. 
Hence without this knowledge nothing can be known concern- 
ing the state of men as to reformation and regeneration. All 
and each of the things which exist in the spiritual and the na- 
tural worlds co-exist from discrete degrees and at the same 
time from continuous degrees. Continuous degrees are decre- 
ments from coarser to finer, or from denser to rarer ; or rather 
are increments from finer to coarser, or from rarer to denser, 
just as of light to shade, of heat to cold, of hard to soft, or of 
thick to thin. But discrete degrees are entirely different, they 
are as things prior, posterior and postreme ; and as end, cause 
and effect. These degrees are called discrete, because the 
prior is by itself, the posterior by itself, and the postreme by it- 
self; but still, taken together, they make one. There are 

31 



350 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

atmospheres, from the highest to the lowest, or from the sun to 
the earth, which are called ethers and airs, discreted into such 
degrees ; and there are as it were simples, congregated from 
them, and again congregated from these, which taken together 
are called a compound. These degrees are discrete, because 
they exist distinctly, and are understood by degrees of altitude ; 
but the former degrees are continuous, because they contain 
ratios of more or less, or less or more, of the same things, and 
are understood by degrees of latitude." " It is known by ocular 
experience, that each muscle in the human body consists of the 
smallest fibres, and that these, being disposed in fascicles, make 
up the larger fibres, which are called moving ones ; and that 
from bundles of these exists the compound, which is called the 
muscle. It is similar with the nerves : in these, from the 
smallest fibres are compacted larger ones, which appear as fila- 
ments, and from these collected the nerve is compacted. It is 
similar in all and every thing of the vegetable and mineral king- 
doms : in woods there are compactions of filaments in a triple 
order ; in metals and stones there are conglobations of the 
parts also in a triple order. From these things it is manifest 
what discrete degrees are, namely, that one is from another, 
and by the other a third, which is called a compound; and that 
each degree is distinct from another. It is said that degrees 
are such among themselves, but it is meant that substances are 
such in their degrees. There are three heavens, and these dis- 
tinguished by discrete degrees. Wherefore one heaven is 
under another ; nor do they communicate with each other other- 
wise than by influx, which is effected from the Lord through 
the highest and the higher to the lowest, and not the reverse. 
But each heaven in itself is distinguished, not by discrete, but 
by continuous degrees : that is, the wisest are in the centre, 
and the less wise are more and more in the circumference : 
thus wisdom decreases even to ignorance, as light decreases 
into shade, which is done by continuity. It is similar with 
men: the interior, which are of their mind are distinguished into 
as many degrees as are the angelic heavens, and one degree of 
them is above another ; wherefore the interiors of men, which 



NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 351 

are of their mind, are distinguished by discrete degrees : hence 
it is that man may be in the lowest degree, or in a higher, or 
in the highest, according to the altitude of his wisdom ; and 
that when he is in only the lowest degree, the higher degree is 
shut ; and that it is opened as he receives wisdom from the 
Lord. In man also, as in heaven, there are continuous de- 
grees as well as those that are discrete. The reason why man 
is similar to the heavens is, because he is, as to the interiors of 
his mind, a heaven in the least form, so far as he is in love and 
wisdom from the Lord." (D. L. & W. 184—198.) 

Now nature and spirit, or the natural and spiritual planes of 
the mind, are separated by a discrete degree; and are just as 
distinct as act and will, speech and thought, body and soul, 
effect and cause. Hence it is just as impossible for what is 
natural to become what is spiritual, as it is for effect to become 
cause, or body to become soul. 

But man is born in nature. He first comes into existence with 
a material body. In this first stage of his existence he knows 
nothing and can do nothing without help. He opens his eyes 
upon material objects, and his mind is first formed by the 
knowledge of natural things. All his thoughts and affections 
are formed by things of time and space. He understands na- 
tural things only ; he wills those things alone which the natural 
world affords. Hence he is incapable of a spiritual thought or a 
spiritual affection. For the Lord says, " My kingdom is not 
of this world ;" of course has nothing in common with this 
world : and therefore, he whose thoughts and affections are 
wholly formed by the things of this world, can have no thought 
of, or affection for, the things of the Lord's spiritual kingdom. 

The things of heaven and the spiritual world have nothing 
to do with time and space — except that they act upon time and 
space, as spirit does upon matter, or soul upon body. The 
thought, therefore, which is formed by time and space only, is 
incapable of comprehending those things which exist indepen- 
dently of time and space. Thus the natural mind is in itself 
incapable of comprehending the things of heaven, just as space 
cannot comprehend that which is above and without space. 



352 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

Hence Paul says, (1. Cor. ii. 14,) " The natural man receiveth 
not the things of the spirit of God : for they are foolishness 
unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spirit- 
ually discerned." 

Nor is it possible by any perfection of the natural mind in 
natural things to bring it to a perception of spiritual things : for 
" that which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born 
of the spirit, is spirit ;" and "flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God." It is just as impossible for the mere na- 
tural man by any cultivation of his mere natural powers to see 
spiritual things in spiritual light, as it is for a mere animal by 
any perfection of his animal nature to understand rational things 
in rational light; just as impossible for a man, without spiritual 
discernment, to understand the things of the spirit of God, as 
it is for a horse to understand mathematics. 

Man is, in fact, as to his corporeal part, a mere animal. In 
this he thinks and feels as an animal. Hence the apostle Peter, 
(2 Epis. ii. 12,) speaking of "them that walk after the flesh 
in the lust of uncleanness," says, " these, as natural brute 
beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things 
that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own 
corruption." So Jude, speaking of the same description of 
persons, " But these speak evil of those things which they know 
not : but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those 
things they corrupt themselves." And Paul, evidently in allu- 
sion to mere natural and evil disposed men, speaks of having 
" fought with beasts at Ephesus." (1 Cor. xv. 32.) Thus man 
as to his corporeal part is a mere animal. He, however, dif- 
fers from an animal in the capacity which he enjoys of becom- 
ing spiritual, which a brute does not possess. But if he does 
not exercise this faculty, and thus does not rise above his mere 
animal nature, he is virtually a brute. 

And hence, in the degree that his mind is immersed in cor- 
poreal or sensual things, even a man is incapable of under- 
standing mathematics, or becoming proficient in those sciences 
which dwell in the rational plane of the mind. Any person 
who has studied these sciences well knows how necessary it is 



NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 353 

for a man to keep under his animal nature in order to reach 
proficiency in them. Those who have been engaged in the 
education of youth know w r ell enough, too, how difficult, if not 
impossible it is, to make some boys, whose animal propensities 
are strong, understand abstract scientific truths. 

Any perfection of man's mere animal nature, then, will 
never give a man a rational discernment of scientific things. 
Let his sight, his hearing, his smell, his taste, his touch, be ever 
so exquisite ; let his form be ever so perfect in symmetry, or 
powerful in muscular energy ; all will avail him nothing in the 
comprehension of mathematical truths, for instance, unless he 
has a mathematical mind. Just so it is with spiritual things. 
Any perfection of man's mere natural mind will avail him no- 
thing in the comprehension of spiritual truths, unless he has a 
spiritual mind. And this can be acquired only by an elevation 
of his mental and moral powers, discretely, out of mere natu- 
ral things into the light of heaven. A spiritual body must be 
developed and perfected, with a spiritual eye, and all the or- 
gans of spiritual discernment, before he can see the things of 
the spirit of God. He must, as Paul expresses it, " be trans- 
formed by the renewing of his mind." And as, in the case of 
the acquisition of scientific discernment, it is necessary to mor- 
tify and keep under the propensities of our mere animal nature 
by an obedience to the dictates of prudence and propriety ; so, 
in the case of spiritual discernment, it is necessary for us to 
mortify and keep under the propensities of the mere natural 
man — " the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the 
pride of life" — by a life according to the Lord's commandments. 

Any thing but a life according to the Lord's commandments 
will not suffice to open the spiritual mind. And an obedience 
to the Lord's commandments as mere natural rules of life, will 
not do this. These commands must be done as spiritual truths 
— as truths which teach spiritual motives, and which inculcate 
spiritual ends of action. No motives of action, no maxims of 
conduct, no rules of morality which the natural man can feel, 
devise, or put in practice will avail to the opening of his mind 
up to heaven. That which is born of the flesh is still and only 

31 * 



354 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 

flesh. The Lord is " the way, the truth and the life ;" and no 
man can ascend up to heaven — can attain to that spiritual per- 
ception and blessedness which constitutes heaven — but he who 
takes up his cross daily and follows the Lord's footsteps in the 
regeneration. Jesus says, (John, viii. 12,) " I am the light of 
the world : he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, 
but shall have the light of life:" and no man can have the light 
of life, unless he derive it from the word made flesh : for " in 
him was life; and the life was the light of men," (John, i. 4:) 
" that was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world :" and " Simon Peter answered him, Lord to 
whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life," (John, 
vi. 68 :) " it is the spirit that quickeneth" — " The words that I 
speak unto you, are spirit and are life," (John, vi. 63 :) and 
the only way in which we can attain this spirit, and enjoy this 
life, is by keeping these words which the Lord speaks to us ;. 
for he says, (John, v. 24,) " Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, 
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; 
but is passed from death unto life ;" " If thou wilt enter into 
life, keep the commandments." (Matt, xviii. 17.) Hence it is 
clear that keeping the Lord's words, or his commandments, is 
the way in which we draw nigh to him, and receive the life 
which is in him, and which is spiritual life. 

Thus, then, a new birth is necessary, because man is first 
born in this world, and there is a contrariety between this 
world and heaven in which man was destined to live for ever; 
Heaven is spiritual, and this world is natural ; and what is na- 
tural is separated from what is spiritual by a discrete degree. 
Hence, as man is first born natural, he, to become spiritual, 
must be born again. His natural loves, with their affections 
and thoughts, must be exchanged for spiritual loves, with their? 
affections and thoughts. It is natural for man to love himself and 
the world; but it is spiritual for him to love God and his neigh- 
bour : and " a man cannot serve two masters : for either he* 
wUl hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the^ 



NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 355 

one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
mon." (Matt. vi. 24.) Man, therefore, cannot act from the 
love of self and the world and from the love of God and his 
neighbour, at the same time. Hence his selfish and worldly 
love must be brought into subjection to the love of God and 
the neighbour. He must cease to regard himself and the world 
in the first place, and he must make God and his neighbour 
first. In this way the " first must become last and the last 
first." Hence a change must take place. 

Moreover, the necessity of a radical change is not only in- 
herent in man's constitution, in that he is first born natural, 
and must afterwards be made spiritual ; but this necessity is 
made still greater by the hereditary evil into which he is born. 
For " man is born into sin which is increased in a long series 
from parents, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and is be- 
come hereditary, and thereby translated into the offspring. 
And every man who is born, is born into so many hereditary 
evils, which have thus successively grown one upon another, that 
he is nothing but sin. Wherefore, unless he be regenerated, he 
remains wholly in sin as to every power and faculty." (A. C. 
5280.) Hence, if he does not receive spiritual life, or if he is 
not begotten anew by the Lord, he cannot come into heaven. 
This is the reason that the Lord says, " Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," (John, iii. 3 ;) and 
" except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter 
into the kingdom of God," (verse 5.) Wherefore, marvel not 
that he says unto you, " Ye must be born again." 

From all that has been said, we summarily conclude, under 
this head, " that man is not born of his parents into spiritual 
life, but into natural life. Spiritual life is to love God above 
all things and to love the neighbour as himself; and this ac- 
cording to the precepts of faith, which the L ord has taught in 
the Word : but natural life is to love self and the world above 
the neighbour — yes, above God himself! Every man is born 
of his parents into the evils of the love of self and the world, 
Every evil, which, by habit as it were, has contracted a nature. 



850 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 

is derived into the offspring : thus successively from parents, from 
grandfathers, and from great-grandfathers, in a long series- 
backwards. Hence the derivation of evil is at length become 
so great that the whole of man's life, which is properly or dis- 
tinctively his own, is nothing else but evil. This continued 
determinated evil is not broken and altered except by the life 
of faith and charity from the Lord. Man continually inclines 
and lapses into what he derives hereditarily from his parents. 
Hence he confirms within himself that evil, and also of himself 
superadds more evils. These evils are altogether contrary to 
spiritual life, and destroy it. Wherefore, unless man, as to 
spiritual life, is by the Lord conceived anew, born anew and 
educated anew, or, in other words, is created anew, he is 
damned : for he wills nothing else, and hence thinks noth- 
ing else, but what is infused into him by evil spirits from 
hell. Consequently, since man is such by nature, the order 
of life is inverted with him: what ought to have dominion, 
this is made to serve, and what ought to serve, this has do- 
minion. And that man may be saved, this order which ap- 
pertains to him by nature, must be absolutely changed by re- 
generation from the Lord." (A. C. 8548—8553.) Therefore, 
marvel not that he says unto you, " Ye must be born again." 

We come now, in the second place, to show that this change 
must be gradual and progressive : for " ye must be born again." 

The objects of this material world, existing as they do from 
the Divine Being, correspond to him, and figure forth his opera- 
tions. All things in nature are determined in their forms, and 
have their qualities, by the influx of life into them from the 
Deity through suitable mediums. Hence every thing in uature 
must represent some principle in the Divine Being; just as the 
print of the hand in some plastic substance represents its form, 
or as the features of the face represent the character of the 
mind. And thus " universal nature is a theatre representative of 
the Lord's kingdom." We may, therefore, reason that there is 
an analogy between the operations of the Deity in the natural 
world and his operations in the spiritual world. And as we 



NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 357 

discover that all things in the natural world are gradual and 
progressive in their growth, we may hence conclude that all 
things in the spiritual world are subject to a like order. 

Throughout all nature, a single instance cannot be produced, 
in which a thing is made complete and perfect at once. Every- 
thing has a beginning, a middle and an end. Every thing 
starts from something as a first principle, and progresses 
gradually towards maturity. Thus from the sun go forth heat 
and light ; from these atmospheres, in various successions ; 
and from these, in regularly progressive combinations, those 
innumerable etherial, aerial, vapourous, fluid and solid sub- 
stances which make up the globe. From springs flow stream- 
lets ; these, collecting, form rivulets ; which, running together, 
form rivers ; and these, uniting, from smaller become larger, 
till they pour their mingling waters into lakes, and seas, and 
oceans. Again exhaled by the action of the sun's rays upon 
the surface of the ocean, the waters rise in vapours, which, 
collecting, form clouds, and these, wafted by the winds to some 
colder region, are condensed, and descend in rain to refresh 
and fertilize the thirsty earth. 

Throughout the vegetable kingdom, also, how striking is the 
operation of the law of progressive order ! There is first the 
seed, then the germ, then the shoot, then the stalk, then the 
branches, then the buds, then the leaves, then the flowers, and 
at last the fruit, in which is deposited fresh seeds for further 
propagations. 

So in the animal kingdom, there is no such thins; as an 
animal formed entire at once. But with these, as with vegeta- 
bles, and all other things in nature, there is a beginning and a 
progressive growth to maturity. 

In like manner man, as to his bodily form and animal life, 
is conceived, carried in the womb, born, grows up, and is edu- 
cated, before he comes to maturity and enjoys the full exercise 
of his powers. 

Now as this is so in the natural world, why should it not be 
so in the spiritual world 1 Can the Deity, who is " the same 
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," be thus orderly and pro- 



35S NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 

gressive in his works of nature, and not be so in his works of 
grace ? Can he be so long in forming the body, and in bring- 
ing it to maturity, and yet regenerate the soul at once ? Surely 
it is the dictate of sound reason that the new birth must be 
gradual and progressive. 

The new birth is so represented in the Scriptures. For the 
Lord says, (Mark, iv. 28 — 28,) " So is the kingdom of God ? as 
if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, 
and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow 
up he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of 
herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in 
the ear." Again he says, (verses 30 — 32,) " Whereunto shall 
we liken the kingdom of God ? or with what comparison shall 
we compare it ? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, 
when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be 
in the earth : but when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh 
greater than all herbs, and^shooteth out great branches, so that 
the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." It is 
manifest that these passages refer to the implantation of the 
church in man, which is the same as regeneration. And we 
here see that the Lord himself compares the kingdom of heaven, 
that is, the dominion of spiritual principles in the mind of man, 
to seed and to the progressive growth of plants — thus establish- 
ing the analogy between spiritual and natural things, and thus 
fully confirming the argument we have advanced for the gra- 
dual and progressive nature of the new birth. 

Wherefore, the new birth of man is not instantaneous. For 
it is like the growth of a tree. Hence, the man who is reborn 
begins, like a tree, from seed ; next he produces leaves ; next 
blossoms, and finally fruit. The seed from which he begins is 
the truth of the Word. For the Lord (Matt, xiii.) represents 
himself as a sower going forth to sow, in evident allusion to the 
spiritual instructions which he gave by the truths that he uttered ; 
and he compares the various reception of these instructions to 
seed falling by the way-side, upon stony places, among thorns 
and into good ground. Hence the first stage of regeneration 
in man is the reception of truth from the Word ; for in this 



NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 359 

are contained all the Lord's spiritual instructions. The truths 
of this Word become seed sown in him. Next he produces 
such things as are of intelligence, which in the Word are signi- 
fied by leaves. For when the Lord cursed the barren fig-tree, 
it was because it had leaves only — hereby intimating that those 
who received truth into the understanding merely, without bring- 
ing it down to the regulation of their lives, and who are thus 
intelligent without being wise, are cursed. Next he produces 
such things as are of wisdom, which are signified by blossoms. 
For in Isaiah, xxvii. 6, it is said, M Israel shall blossom, and 
bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." Here Israel re- 
presents the internal or spiritual church, and the church is said 
to blossom when its principles come down into practice from 
a principle of obedience, and the practice of the principles of the 
church is true wisdom. And finally man produces such things 
as are of life, that is, the good acts which flow from a principle 
of love to God and charity to his neighbour, which in the Word 
are signified by fruits. For the Lord says, " These are they which 
are sown on good ground ; such as hear the Word, and receive it, 
and bring forth fruit, some thirty fold, some sixty, and some an 
hundred," (Mark, iv. 20 :) and it is well known that the sum and 
substance of the Word is to love God supremely, and our 
neighbour as oneself. Hence, to bring forth fruit, is to hear 
and receive this precept ; that is, in heart and soul to act from 
the principle of love to God and charity to the neighbour. 

Such, then, is the representative similitude between the fruit- 
bearing tree and the man who is regenerated : and by this com- 
parison, which the Lord himself has instituted, we know that 
regeneration is gradual and progressive. 

But the words of our Lord in the text are still more striking 
and conclusive. Marvel not that I say unto thee " ye must be 
born again." As now there is a strict analogy between the 
natural and the spiritual worlds, it follows, from these words of 
our Lord, that the regenerative process in man is similar to his 
natural birth. And as natural birth is gradual and progressive, 
so in like manner must be the spiritual birth. 

The Lord does not here make a comparison, but asserts an 



B60 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 

actual birth. " Ye must be lorn again :" and " Except a man 
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nico- 
demus, it seems, from his low natural state, could not conceive 
of a spiritual birth ; and, understanding the Lord's words 
literally, he inquires, " How can a man be born when he is 
old ? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and 
be born ?" The Lord then explains himself to mean a spiritual 
birth, by saying, " Except a man be born of water, and of the 
spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 

In this text, as we showed in our last sermon, the Lord inti- 
mates the nature of the new birth — that it is a spiritual pro- 
cess, whereby man's mental, moral and religious character is 
radically changed by truths received from the Sacred Scrip- 
tures and a life according to them. He also shows that this is 
^n entirely separate and distinct thing from the formation of 
the natural mind: for he says, "that which is born of the flesh, 
is flesh ; and that which is born of the spirit, is spirit ;" and 
clearly intimates that the process is not only not instantaneous, 
and perceptible to man, but that it goes on secretly, and we 
may conclude gradually, without man's knowing any thing 
about it — except so far as its effects are seen in the external, by 
comparing a more with a less advanced state of growth in 
grace. For he says, u The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it 
cometh, or whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the 
spirit." By wind in this passage is evidently meant truth, 
because, in the original, it is the same word which in the last 
clause of this verse is rendered spirit ; and by the spirit in the 
Word, is meant truth. The oft quoted declaration of John 
confirms this — "it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the 
spirit is truth." (1 Ep. v. 6.) Inasmuch, then, as man is rege- 
nerated by a life according to divine truth, when the Lord says, 
" the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it 
goeth," he intimates that all divine truth, whereby a man is 
regenerated, flows into him when he does not know it. 

By the wind blowing where it listeth, or the spirit breathing 



NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 361 

where it willeth, is signified, that the Lord by divine truth, out 
of mercy, gives new life ; by hearing the voice thereof, is sig- 
nified that those things come to perception in the external or 
natural man — for voice denotes what is announced from the 
Word ; and by not knowing whence it comes and whither it 
goes, is signified that man does not know how regeneration is 
effected — for it is effected by innumerable and unspeakable 
secret means from the Lord." (A. C. 10, 240.) 

Thus the Lord clearly shows that the new birth goes on 
gradually and progressively, while man himself is unconscious 
of the process. All which goes to show the exact analogy 
which there is between the birth of the spiritual man and that 
of the natural man. For man's natural preservation and birth 
goes on and takes place without his consciousness. And after 
he is born, he grows imperceptibly to himself. It is only by 
comparing his size at one time with his size at another, that he 
can have any idea of his bodily growth. And with regard to 
his bodily life — digestion, the circulation of the blood, and the 
operations of the nervous system, by which the bodily frame is 
kept in health and vigour, go on without man's knowing any 
thing about them. All that he knows is their effect in a con 
scious power of willing, thinking and acting. Thus, even in 
regard to the life of his body, " the wind bloweth where it 
listeth, and he knows not whence it cometh, or whither it 
goeth." He knows nothing of those secret operations by which 
life flowing into his body causes it to exist and subsist as a 
living form. He only hears the voice thereof. He is only 
conscious of life in its external effects. 

Since, then, there is so strict an analogy between the spiritual 
birth and the natural birth, the fact of the gradual and progres- 
sive nature of the natural birth proves incontrovertibly that the 
new birth also is in its nature gradual and progressive. And 
we may have some idea of the process of the new birth by the 
various stages in the natural birth. Thus " the man who is 
regenerating is also, in like manner, as it were, conceived, car- 
ried in the womb, born and educated, as a man is conceived 
from his father, carried in the womb of his mother, born and 
afterwards educated." (A. E. 721.) 

32 



862 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE, 

We may be able to apprehend this truth more clearly by nU 
tending to the human constitution as it has been now so minute- 
ly pourtrayed in the preceding sermons. It has been seen 
that there are three things which constitute a man — will, under- 
standing and act, or affection, thought and speech, or love, 
wisdom and usefulness. These three things, or principles? 
may be said to constitute the whole man, because they enter 
into and produce every thing which is in him, or which pro- 
ceeds from him. 

Now the thought, or the understanding, is that in man which 
sees and receives truth. Into this, therefore, truth is insemi- 
nated. But a man may think and understand truth some time 
before he wills it* And we all know that men do very fre- 
quently have clear and rational views of truth for some time 
before they will them, and bring them into practice. The re- 
ception of truth in the understanding, therefore, is only a part 
of the regenerative process. It is the first stage of the new 
birth. And the spiritual man is only now mentally conceived. 

In the next stage, truth becomes a matter of will. And a 
man may will and intend a truth some time before he brings it 
into practice. He may resolve, and re-resolve, and yet not 
effect his resolution. The truth must be perfectly formed in 
his will before he can bring it forth. Thus the truth is carried 
in the will as a womb. This is spiritual gestation. 

When the truth has acquired a perfect form in the will — 
when a man has such an affection or love for it, as to desire to 
make it the end of his life, he is then stimulated to bring it into 
act. And when man, from the will does bring the truth into 
act, and thus makes it a matter of life, it becomes a living things 
and is said to be born. This birth of truth by bringing it into 
practice, is the third stage of the regenerative process. 

In this stage, the truth in man meets with a great deal of op- 
position from the false principles which arise from his heredi- 
tary evil nature. The false maxims of selfish and worldly pro- 
pensities array themselves against the truths which he has learnt 
from the Word, and a mental conflict ensues. These conflicts 
are temptations, that produce anxiety and anguish of mind, 
which continue until the truth is brought forth into the life, and 



NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 363 

the life becomes conformed to it. This anxiety and anguish of 
mind are the labour pains attendant on the birth of truth. To 
which succeeds a state of tranquillity and peace, when truth has 
become predominant over the false and evil principles opposed 
to it, and there is the delight of doing what is good and true for 
its own sake. This is the spiritual signification of the Lord's 
words in John, xvi. 21, " A woman, when she is in travail, hath 
sorrow, because her hour is come : but as soon as she is de- 
livered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for 
joy that a man is born into the world." 

But it is some time before the life can be purified and entirely 
conformed to the truth which man understands and wills. It 
is like doing away a bad habit which has been long indulged. 
This is not to be done in a moment. The habit frequently re- 
turns upon him, and he frequently relapses into it. And it is 
only by a persevering and constant endeavour that it is even- 
tually overcome. So, in the regeneration, the evils <of self-love 
and love of the world, which are hereditarily in man, cannot be 
overcome at once. A man may understand and will that truth, 
on which hang all the Law and the Prophets — " Thou shalt. 
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, 
and with all thy mind, and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as 
thyself" (Matt. xxii. 37, 39) — long before his conduct is 
thoroughly conformed to it as a principle of action. " The 
old man, with his deeds," is not so soon or so easily put off. 
It is not without great conflict — not without many down-fallings 
and up-risings — that we can " put en the new man, which is 
renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." 
(Col. iii. 9, 10.) 

The conflict and difficulty attendant upon bringing our life 
into order by an entire subjection to truth in the inner man, is 
very forcibly described by Paul in Rom. vii. — particularly in 
verses 18 — 25. " For I know, that in me (that is in my flesh) 
dwelleth no good thing : for to will is present with me, but to 
perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I 
would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do. 
Now if I do that I would not, (here he evidently alludes to in- 
voluntary lapses into previous bad habits,) it is no more I that 



364 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 

do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find, then, a law, that when 
I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the 
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law, in 
my members warring against the law of my mind, and bring- 
ing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my mem- 
bers. wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death ! I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God ; 
but with the flesh the law of sin." Who is there that has made 
almost any advancement in the regenerate life that cannot testify 
to the truth and pathos of this quotation ! How strikingly does 
it display the dire conflicts which ensue when we endeavour to 
bring the principles of divine love and charity into practice ! 
Oh, he who imagines he can be born again in an instant, does 
not know himself! Little does he know of those agonies which 
the soul endures, and those appalling difficulties which it en- 
counters, in bringing into subjection the inbred loves of self 
and the world ! And those who think they know they are born 
again; can, with the utmost confidence, tell the very moment 
when it took place, and are boasting that they have experienced 
a change of heart ; had better take care that they are not still 
" in the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity" ! 

This reduction of the life to order, by the bringing forth truth 
from the inner to the outer man, is the fourth stage in the regene- 
ration, and is the education or bringing up of the spiritual man 
when born. This stage lasts till the end of life in this world. And 
the life which a man has lived in this world, then serves as a 
plane for his eternal progression in the knowledge and love of 
God in the world to come, which is the spiritual man's growth 
in wisdom to eternity. 

Thus a man must be spiritually conceived, gestated, born, and 
brought up, before he can come unto a perfect man, unto the 
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," (Eph. iv. 13:) 
all which shows that the change by which a man comes out of 
a natural into a spiritual state is gradual and progressive. 
Wherefore, marvel not that the Lord says unto you, " ye must 
be born again." 



NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 365 

We conclude, now, from all that has been said and shown, that 
there is no newness of life without a radical change in the prin- 
ciple of action — that there is no true new birth until the prin- 
ciple of action, which is the end that a man proposes to himself 
in all he does, is from natural made spiritual ; and that, conse- 
quently, the new birth consists in ceasing to act from the impulses 
of natural will as guided by natural reason, and the learning 
to act in all things from a regard to the Lord's commandments, 
which are all spiritual truths, and therefore produce, in the con- 
formity of the life to them, spiritual life. We conclude, in short, 
that the new birth consists in the ceasing to act from the prin- 
ciple of self love, and love of the world, which is a supreme 
regard to self-interest and to worldly elevation or aggrandize- 
ment, in all we do ; and the learning to act from a principle of 
love to God and the neighbour, which is a supreme regard in all 
we do to what is good simply because it is good, and what is 
true simply because it is true. We conclude, further, as to the 
necessity of the new birth, that this arises out of the contrariety 
between the natural world and God, and out of the fact that 
man is first born natural, and must afterwards become discretely 
spiritual. And we conclude, finally, that the new birth is 
gradual and progressive in its nature, and not an instantaneous 
work. In short, we are born anew from above ; thus the Lord 
alone is our spiritual father, the sole source of our regeneration ; 
who begets us anew unto righteousness and true holiness, by a 
successive process of spiritual conception, gestation, birth, and 
education to eternity : for not one single spark of spiritual life 
can be given to us by the light of our own wisdom or the heat 
of our own love. 

Wherefore, may the Lord in his infinite mercy give us the spirit 
of adoption, whereby we can cry Abba, Father ! May he tho- 
roughly renew us in the spirit and temper of our minds, giving 
that faith which works by love and a new creature ! And may 
he, in short, give us " power to become the sons of God" — en- 
abling us so to believe on his name as to be " born not of blood, 
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" ! 
Amen. 

32* 



SERMON XXI 



MATTHEW, VI. 33. 



« But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all 
these things shall be added unto you." 

We commenced these sermons with the observation, that the 
New Jerusalem differs from the old christian church, not in ad- 
vancing entirely different doctrines, but in understanding the 
same doctrines in a new way. We now conclude our series 
with the remark, that, in the true christian church, all things 
are made new, not by a change of externals, but by a change 
of internals — not by a change of ordinary and proper natural 
actions, but by a total change of the ends from which such ac- 
tions are commonly done. Hence the prescription which the 
Great Physician has given for the securing of spiritual life, 
" Thou shalt love God supremely and thy neighbour as thyself 
— This do, and thou shalt live," is a formulary for every day 
practice. It is a principle which is to be brought into every 
duty, every vocation, every pleasure, every enjoyment of this 
natural life ; and it is a spiritual principle, which, when so 
brought into natural life, makes natural life itself spiritual; that 
is, makes natural life so subservient as to conduce to the 
strengthening and perfecting of spiritual life. When natural 
things are thus done from a spiritual principle — when natural 
things are sought, acquired and used from an end to God and 
the neighbour — from an end to what is good and true for its 
own sake — from an end to what is just and honest for the sake 
of justice and honesty, and without any ultimate or final refer- 
ence to selfish and worldly gratification, then natural things are 
truly and eternally enjoyed. But when natural life is in any 



LIFE OF USE THE SUM OF RELIGION". 367 

way separated from spiritual life, so that natural things are 
sought, acquired and used without a continual as well as an 
ultimate and a final reference to spiritual and eternal things, 
then, not only is true spiritual life lost, but the fruition of na- 
tural life also is for ever put out of our reach. Therefore it is, 
that the Lord gives us the weighty injunction of our text : 
" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and 
all these things shall be added unto you." 

All things in the universe have reference to two principles, 
namely, goodness and truth, and to their conjunction in ultimate 
use. And in the Sacred Scriptures there are constantly two 
terms used and mostly coupled by the conjunctive particle and. 
One of these terms has specific reference to good, while the 
other refers to truth, and the coupling of them by the particle 
and denotes the conjunction of good and truth in use. Thus 
the terms Lord and God are used — the term Lord referring to 
the divine good, and the term God to the divine truth. Hence 
the kingdom of God is the kingdom of divine truth. 

In the text, " the kingdom of God" is coupled with " his 
righteousness" by the particle " and" : therefore, according to 
the general law just stated, while the kingdom of God means 
the kingdom of the divine truth, his righteousness means the 
divine good of that truth. The kingdom of truth is its con- 
trolling influence in the mind of man, and the righteousness of 
truth is the good to which truth in practice leads. The king is 
the inmost or central functionary of the kingdom. And the 
king, in the human soul, is its inmost principle, or its ruling 
end of life. The king sits on the throne, which is the highest 
and first place of the kingdom. The throne is the seat and 
emblem of power and authority, and from it flows all that which 
constitutes the kingdom's force and integrity. The kingdom is 
in fact nothing but the holy principle of royalty extended from 
the king and his throne. Hence it is that the throne is put for 
the kingdom, and the king for the kingly office. 

Now, in the human soul, the first place is its inmost princi- 
ple ; and whatever rules there, rules throughout the whole soul. 
And, as we have already shown, the inmost of the soul is its 



368 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE 

ruling love, which makes one with its end of life ; for whatever 
a man loves supremely, that he proposes to himself as his end 
of life. Hence the end of life, is the first place in the human 
soul ; and whatever is in its end of life, this is the ruling prin- 
ciple of the soul. Hence the command to seek first the king- 
dom of God and his righteousness, implies that the divine truth 
and the good of that truth should be made man's end of life. It 
implies that truth should be sought for its own sake, and good 
be done for its own sake. When truth, with the good of it, is 
in man's end of life, then it is in the first place, and has domi- 
nion over all the inferior principles and parts of the soul. In 
short, good is as a king, and truth is as a throne, in the mind 
of man, which is a spiritual world and dominion. Hence, 
when truth is in the end of life, it is God's throne set in the 
soul ; and when the good of that truth is in the ruling love, 
that good is as a king, seated on that throne, exercising 
dominion over the whole will, understanding and ultimate con- 
duct, as his kingdom. 

The things which are to be added unto us, when we seek 
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, are all the 
things w r hich are exterior to that kingdom and righteousness. 
The kingdom of God and his righteousness constitute spiritual 
and celestial life in the soul, and the things exterior to this 
life are all those things which constitute natural life. 

Now, if a man makes spiritual and celestial life his end, then 
all things of natural life will happen as he wishes for his salva- 
tion. For "the delights of gain and honours in this natural 
world, when they are regarded as means conducive to heavenly 
life as an end, have then life in them by virtue of life from 
heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord; for in this case 
the end regarded is the Lord. When man is in such an order 
of life, then worldly gains and honours are a blessing to him ; 
but if he be in an inverted order," — if he looks first to earthly 
gains and honours, and pays regard to spiritual and divine 
things as means to such gains and honours as his end of life,— 
then they are curses to him. Hence that all things of natural 
life are blessings when man is in the order of heaven, is meant 



THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 3G9 

by its being said, in the text, all things shall be added unto you, 
" if ye seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness." 

The Lord's divine providence is most particular and singular 
in all that concerns man's spiritual and eternal welfare. u Even 
the hairs of our heads are all numbered, and not a sparrow 
falls to the ground without his notice." He decks the lily and 
clothes the grass of the field. He gives to man all natural 
good, and every appliance of temporal life, as means of attain- 
ing the life which is spiritual and eternal. All physical power, 
all mental ability, all external science, all that knowledge and 
skill which gains the wealth and constitutes the power of this 
natural life, are, in his divine providence, furnished as the sub- 
stratum of heavenly life. And if " the Lord's providence ex- 
tends to the lowest things and principles in the regenerate life, 
how much more will it extend to the things and principles that 
are of a higher order. Therefore man ought to depend upon 
the Divine Providence for sustenance in all the degrees of his 
life, and not to trust to his own prudence. Nevertheless the 
unregenerate are more solicitous about external or natural life 
than about internal or spiritual life — when yet it is the Lord's 
will, in giving natural life and its goods, that external or 
natural life should be subservient and administer to internal or 
spiritual life. For when spiritual life flows into and rests on 
natural life, then both are preserved ; but when natural life has 
the preeminence and rules over spiritual life, then both are de- 
stroyed. Therefore spiritual truth and good ought to be exalted 
above natural ; for then natural truth and good are blessed 
from a spiritual principle within, and become conducive to the 
eternal life of the soul." 

Such is the general spiritual import of the text. It may have 
a more particular illustration, if we consider what is more spe- 
cifically meant by the kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

We are now taught in the new church, that the kingdom of 
God is a kingdom of uses. The reason is, because truth is 
not a mere ideal or intellective thing, but is a vital form. 
Truth is the form of good — is good in its activity : and good 
in form and activity is use. Hence the kingdom of God, which 



370 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE 

is the kingdom of all truths in the complex, is the kingdom of 
all good uses. Therefore, to seek first the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness is to have use, and the love of it, in the 
first place. It is to have use for an end in all we do, and to 
perform use simply from the love of use. And when we en- 
gage in and discharge faithfully all the common duties, as well 
as enjoy all the common pleasures, of this natural life, from a 
simple regard to their use, then all natural good things — wealth, 
honour, fame — may be added unto us, not only without loss, 
but with positive gain, to our spiritual life. On the other hand, 
if a man seek natural good as an end, even though he gain it 
temporarily, still he will lose the enjoyment of it eternally. 

Nor is there any real enjoyment of natural good in time, 
when it is sought as an end — when it is sought from the love 
of self and the world — when it is sought for selfish and worldly 
gratification, and not with a sole view to its use. For however 
much natural wealth or honour we may attain, when sought 
from the love of self and the world, it is a law of our nature 
that we can never be satisfied. In this case, the possession of 
wealth and honour brings with it increased care for what we 
have got, and increased solicitude for more. 

It is not contrary to order that a man should have care in 
providing for himself and his dependents present food and 
raiment, and also wealth for the time to come. But the selfish 
and worldly, that is, the unregenerate, seek only worldly and 
terrestrial things as an end, and have no primary respect to 
heavenly things ; and, in seeking this end, they have no regard 
to a divine principle, but look only to themselves, and expect 
to gain all by the exercise of their own prudence. Hence they 
are the prey of universal solicitude about things future. They 
are goaded by a desire of possessing all things and of exercising 
universal rule, which desire burns more fiercely in proportion 
as it is gratified, until it exceeds all bounds. " Such persons 
grieve if they do not enjoy what they desire, and are tormented 
when they lose the objects of their love. And in the loss of 
what they love, they can have no consolation; for, on such 
occasions, they are angry with the Divine Being, and reject all 



THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 371 

that faith in his goodness, and that trust in his providence, from 
which alone all true consolation in affliction springs. It is 
altogether otherwise with those who seek first the kingdom of 
God and his righteousness, and who desire and procure to 
themselves earthly goods with a sole reference to their use. 
These trust to the Divine Being, acknowledging and seeking 
the Lord as a principle of goodness and truth in all they do." 
And having the Lord as a principle of good and truth in their 
end of life, they are wholly ruled by the Lord and his angels 
flowing into that end, so as to be led, while they themselves are 
ignorant of it, into all that is happy to eternity. " These, although 
they may feel care for things future, nevertheless do not suffer 
any anxiety about them. They are of an equable mind whether 
they enjoy what they desire or not — neither do they grieve at 
the loss of what Ihey desire, being content with their lot. If 
they become opulent, they do not place their hearts in opulence. 
If they are raised to honours, they do not regard themselves as 
more deserving than others. Neither are they sod, if they be- 
come poor; nor are they dejected in mind, if their condition be 
low: for they know that, with those who trust to the Divine 
Being, all things succeed for a happy state in eternity ; and that 
the things which befal them in time — however adverse to their 
apparent and temporal prosperity — are always made conducive 
to an eternal state of happiness." Thus they enjoy temporal 
peace and joy, which is all that the selfish and worldly can 
propose to themselves in the search and acquisition of earthly 
goods, though they may, in the Divine Providence, be deprived 
of them. But seeking earthly good for the sake of heavenly good, 
— in discharging the duties, and enjoying the delights, of natural 
life with an end to eternal life, — the Lord, in his providence, will 
most assuredly add unto them all those terrestrial and worldly 
good things which his wisdom sees will tend to secure them in 
the enjoyment of their eternal happiness. 

If then, any of us are seeking for wealth, for fame, for influ- 
ence among our fellow men, or for any of those things which the 
unregenerate natural man regards and seeks as his chief good, 
et us know that it is not wrong for us to seek such things ; for our 



372 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE 

humanity is to be regenerated, not destroyed. But let us at the 
same time know, that we are not to seek these things as an 
end — we are not to seek them first — we are not to make them 
central and internal ; but we are to put them in the second 
place — we are to put them into the circumference — we are to 
make them subservient to spiritual life — we are to seek and pro- 
cure them only as means to spiritual and eternal use as our final 
end. Then they will be most assuredly added unto us, just so 
far as the Divine Wisdom sees they will conduce to that end. 

In a familiar illustration of our subject we may take a few 
specific cases. Our text as a practical maxim may be thus ex- 
pressed — No man becomes eminent in his profession who has 
not such a passion for it as leads him to pursue it from a de- 
light in it for its own sake, or for the sake of the use which is 
effected by it to the community. 

Men, from the love of self, the love of fame, or the love of 
gain, may be stimulated to such exertions as will lead them to 
a certain degree of eminence and success in their pursuits, 
when they do not love them for their own sakes ; but the de- 
gree will never be that which they would have attained if they 
had been actuated solely by the pure love of the use. Thus 
the poet, the musician, the painter, or the civilian — the states- 
man, the scientific man, the artizan, or the man of any ordinary 
business,* though he may attain to some success when goaded 
by ambition, or stimulated by necessity, still will not reach 
consummate excellence until he is actuated by the love of use, 
or until use simply is the end of his life. The reason is, be- 
cause all excellence comes from God ; and the highest excel- 
lence can flow into man only when he is acting from ends 
similar to those which are actuating the Divine Being, or solely 
by the medium of angels of the highest order, who are living 
nearest to the Lord. 

The celestial angels flow solely into man's ends of life, and 
are themselves in the supreme love of use. For heaven is a 
continent of uses, and not any can come into heaven except so 
far as they are in the performance of use from the love of use. 
And the heavens are discriminated according to the degrees of 



THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 373 

supereminence in the uses which they perform. Hence the 
highest heaven is in the highest uses. Thus the celestial 
heaven, which is emphatically the heaven of love, and therefore 
the heaven in which the love of use supereminently prevails, 
is that alone from which the highest excellence can descend 
into the uses of earth. Now, as the angels of this heaven, 
who are loves in form, can flow only into man's loves, so as to 
rule thence his ends of life ; therefore, where the love of use 
does not exist in man, there can be no ground in man for celes- 
tial influx, from which alone the highest use, and the highest 
excellence in the performance of use on earth, can be produced. 

For instance, it is said that the architectonic art is in its per- 
fection in the heavens. Now an architect on earth, when 
stimulated by ambition, the love of fame, or the love of wealth, 
may design architectural forms of beauty and use in a certain 
degree. He may study the ancients ; — who attained a perfec- 
tion which he cannot surpass, because they went up to the well- 
springs of perfection in the adytum of their souls, and were not 
copyists as he is ; — and by the study of their models, and the 
science of their art, may recombine their elements in forms of 
fancied novelty and imaginary beauty. But he can never, as 
with the hoofs of a winged horse, unloose the gushing fountains 
of original conception, and pour down streams of fresh real 
beauty and use from that sole abode of beauty and use, the 
celestial heaven. There must be a love of use for its own 
sake — a supereminent love of the supremely true and the su- 
premely good in architecture, and the constant end of universal 
good or use to men, without any other recompense of reward 
than simply the delight of performing that use for the good of 
others, before we shall have any original conceptions in archi- 
tecture, that shall equal or surpass those of the ancients. 

The ancients were lovers of their art, and sought excellence 
in it simply for the sake of excellence. Their philosophers, as 
the very term imports, were lovers of wisdom ; and sought 
wisdom for its own sake. Their legislators, as Solon and 
Lycurgus, made laws from the love of justice, and sought the 
good of their country in just laws, though that good was to be 

33 



374 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE 

alone found in their own banishment or expatriation. Their 
teachers of youth were their philosophers — their greatest and 
best men — like Socrates — who taught from the love of the use, 
and not from the love of gain. Hence there is an excellence 
in their arts, their philosophy, their laws and their education, 
which the moderns have never reached except by copying. 
For the moderns have become sensual and sordid in their ends 
of life. They seek not excellence for the sake of excellence 
alone, but for the sake of some extrinsic selfish and worldly 
gratification. Thus they seek excellence for the sake of 
worldly distinction — for the sake of fame among men — for the 
sake of present gain or future glory. And this, in my humble 
opinion, is the reason why modern poets, sculptors, architects, 
and the like, have never equalled or excelled the ancients — why 
they are the mere copyists of ancient models, and not the givers 
forth of original conceptions of superior beauty and superemi- 
nent use. 

It is true, that, in the present day, the arts and sciences have 
received a new impulse; and all the fields of excellence therein, 
are extending, widening, and opening vistas through which 
visions of coming beauty and excellence may now be dimly seen 
that never dawned on ancient eyes and never could have been 
conceived by ancient hearts : but all this is because of immediate 
revelation from heaven in consequence of the consummation of 
the church. The sun has been clothed in sackcloth, the moon 
been turned to blood, the stars of heaven detruded to earth and 
put out in its dust. But the Sun of Righteousness has again 
arisen with healing in his beams. The light of the sun has be- 
come, or is becoming, as the light of seven days. Its floods of 
seven-fold brightness are pouring down to earth, and pressing 
and beaming through, wherever there is a chink. The powers 
of the heavens are everywhere pressing for admission. And 
the laws of heaven are revealed, in the relations of heavenly 
arcana, and in the knowledge of the constitution of the spiritual 
world and of its operation on and influx into the natural world. 

Now the poet, the painter, the sculptor, the architect, and the 
man of any science and of every art, may attain to a more than 



THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 375 

ordinary excellence ; but, to do so, he must connect his spirit 
with the highest influences of the spiritual world, in order that 
their powers may be in his efforts. He must connect himself 
with the highest heaven by the love of use, or he never can 
originate on earth those celestial forms of use and beauty which 
shall command the meed of universal praise, and prosper him 
in the possession of those external goods, which are the un- 
sought and unbought adjuncts of sincerely seeking first the 
kingdom of God and his righteousness. 

The life of the love of use is not only heavenly, but eternal, 
life ; and he who ultimates that life here, will produce in his 
profession or calling, whatever it may be, not only a heavenly, 
but comparatively an infinite, perfection. The acknowledg- 
ment of the Divine Being in any thing, tends to bring into that 
thing a sort of divine presence and divine form. If, therefore, 
the artist of any kind wishes to produce a divine perfection in 
his art, let him acknowledge in his art the Divine Being. It is 
said of Haydn, one of the most famous musical composers, 
that he was wont to invoke the Lord in prayer for inspiration, 
when he engaged in composing his pieces of sacred music. 
And the stamp of that prayer is on his composition, giving it 
an indelible mark of immortality. It is well known, too, that 
the ancient poets always began their poems with an invocation 
to some Deity ; which, if sincere, doubtless gave a character to 
their poetic conceptions. So must the new-church poet and the 
new-church artist, invoke his Lord in all his undertakings, if 
he would certainly attain eminence, excellence, usefulness and 
spiritual power in his calling. 

The Lord of the Newchurchman is Goodness Itself and 
Truth Itself in a Divine Human Form; and the true invocation 
of this Lord, is the acting from a principle of goodness and 
truth, a principle of justice and judgment, in all the good uses 
of society, which is a common man. It is to do use from the 
love of use merely, to do use with an end to the common good, 
and not with an end to fame, honour, gain, or any other merely 
selfish and worldly good. When use is thus done, fame, 
honour, wealth and every other good will be added unto us, — 
although we sought them not, — because they are the natural 



376 THE LIFE OF USE THE SUM OF RELIGION". 

consequents of use well and supereminently done. And so it is 
that all else is added unto us, if we seek first the kingdom of 
God and his righteousness. 

If the poet writes from a passion for poetic excellence, and 
finds his chief and all sufficient reward in the mere delight of 
ultimating poetic beauties for their own sakes, there will be 
added unto him, fame, honour and perhaps worldly gain, as 
consequences of his poetic excellences. But if he think of 
fame, of honour or of wealth, and especially if he seek these 
as ends in his poetic compositions, the founts of true inspiration 
will be closed, and the sordid principle, that actuates him in 
writing, will descend into and defile all his writings, so as to 
make his fame evanescent and his gains unsubstantial. 

So with the painter, if he wants excellence in his art, he must 
seek it for its own sake. He must seek the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness first in his art ; and then fame, wealth and 
every other external good will be added unto him. But if he 
look at these external goods as ends of life, the founts of true 
inspiration in him, too, will be closed up ; and his external ends 
will be lost : or if he succeeds, he will paint only by the lumen 
of some infernal fire, cater for the lusts of some prevailing self- 
ish or worldly passion, and in the wealth and the fame which 
he may hereby gain, he will find only the foothold and the food 
of an ephemeral natural life, to the destruction of the life that 
is heavenly and eternal. 

Just so it is with any other profession in which we as New- 
churchmen may engage. We must pursue them simply from 
the love of use, or they will not strengthen in us spiritual life. 
If we propose to ourselves only natural ends in what we do, na- 
tural life can alone be strengthened by our success. And the 
true church can alone be built up in us, and spread from us, or 
through us, on men around, by our pursuing all our natural 
duties and callings from spiritual ends. Therefore, if we desire 
the true good of our Jerusalem, we will diligently heed our 
Lord's injunction in the text, " Seek ye first the kingdom of 
God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you." 



